Meet Your Match
by virgofairy17
Summary: Penelope Fulton arrives at her new school excited about students accepting her passion for dueling. There's just one problem: Seto Kaiba. She can't stand him! And he can't stand her! But they realize that things are not what they seem. Rated M.
1. The New Duelist in Town

**Meet Your Match**

**Chapter One: The New Duelist in Town**

"And the winner of this title match is…Penelope Fulton! Give it up for our new champion!"

The crowed cheered wildly, but Penelope stayed quiet, reveling in her victory against Weevil Underwood.

'It was like taking candy from a baby,' she thought smugly to herself. Weevil was sulking as the announcer handed the trophy over to the girl. Needless to say, Weevil was not happy and would later on find some way to get revenge…especially since he lost to a girl. And a creepy one at that.

Penelope Fulton was a gifted duelist, but also a scary one. Her long curly hair was the color of orchids and her eyes were a bright, aqua green. She wore heavy black eyeliner and dark lipstick and dressed in all black, most of it covered with studs, safety pins, buckles or skulls. She would never be caught dead in pink. Ever.

The announcer handed the shiny gold trophy to Penelope, and despite her small smile on the outside, she was beaming on the inside. It was about time she had made something of herself.

* * *

"Big brother!" The doors opened and Mokuba entered the office and ran straight towards the desk of his brother, Seto Kaiba.

"What is it Mokuba?"

"Someone just took the title of Domino City Champion! You should check it out!" Mokuba turned on the TV as Kaiba sighed deeply. He didn't have time for this! He had a company to run.

The TV came on, and among all the cheering fans he could see a girl dressed in all black holding a shiny gold trophy.

"Your new regional champion…Penelope Fulton!" Kaiba was surprised that a girl finally won the title. It wasn't that girls weren't good enough to duel. Kaiba had seen several girls duel very well. But most girls were not interested in playing card games. They were more interested in fashion or boys.

"So? Big Deal? I'm practically world champion."

"Yeah…but what if she wins the nationals?

"Like she'll have a chance." Mokuba sighed. There was no use arguing with his older brother. But even if she did win nationals, Kaiba wouldn't acknowledge her. He doesn't even acknowledge Wheeler.

"Seto?"

Kaiba looked up from his laptop computer.

"Yes, Mokuba?"

"I just wanted to tell you that I have to get to school in twenty minutes."

"Of course," he said closing his laptop. He would work on his latest project at lunch. Despite his success being the head of the top gaming company in the world, Seto Kaiba was only seventeen. He still had other obligations…such as school. Once he finished school by the end of next year, he could focus even more of his time towards running his company.

'And they said that you have to go to college to be successful…' Soon Seto and Mokuba were in the limousine and within ten minutes he was standing in front of Domino High School.

It was going to be a long and boring day once again…

* * *

"Penelope! Hurry up or we'll be late!"

Penelope grumbled as she finished buttoning up her uniform. She told herself she would never wear pink, and here she was…doing just that.

'This new school better not suck,' she thought as she stomped angrily down the stairs, wishing she could wear her combat boots to school.

"About time! Let's go!" Penelope's twin sister Natalie grabbed her hand and practically dragged her outside to the bus stop two houses down from theirs.

The bus ride wasn't very interesting to Penelope at all. While she went through her deck looking at all her cards, Natalie was busy chatting with girls and trying to suck up to them in hopes she would become popular.

'Sometimes I think I'm adopted,' she thought. Although Natalie and Penelope were twins, they didn't look alike or act alike.

Penelope's hair was curly, Natalie's was pin straight. She liked black, Natalie liked pink. Penelope likes dueling. Natalie likes shopping.

For the both of them, it was like they were living with an annoying room mate instead of a sister.

The bus pulled in front of her new school. Penelope nearly held her breath in anticipation. She hoped they wouldn't make fun of her or harass her like they did at her last school. All because she loved duel monsters and dressed in black.

'Well, at least I look like everyone else today.'

The dress code insisted that everyone wear uniforms. Pink blazers, blue skirts and black flats with socks. On top of that, she couldn't wear a ton of makeup or her favorite bracelets and spiked choker. Today she wore no makeup and wrestled her hair into a French braid earlier this morning. It was the best she could do considering she slept in this morning.

She followed her sister to the new building and up to the office where they would receive their new schedules and a map of the school.

"Isn't this great Penelope? A new school! This is going to be so fun!"

"I feel just like a freshman all over again," She said sighing.

"Argh! You're such a buzz kill Penelope. Can't you try and be positive just this once?"

"Maybe I don't want to be. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a calculus class to get to."

"Have fun with the nerds," she said laughing. "I'll be in art class."

Penelope rolled her eyes at her sister and walked down the hall and up a flight of stairs to her calculus class. Unlike Natalie, Penelope was smart and understood math.

At the start of class she found a seat in the middle of the room and the teacher asked her to stand up so everyone could mentally pick her apart.

Her first class was okay. There just wasn't anyone interesting to talk to.

Next on the list was History, then it was gym, chemistry, computer science, Mandarin Chinese, art, and literature. History was okay, but not her favorite subject.

Like before, she entered a full room of students and unlike the last class who was a complete snooze fest, these guys were little bit livelier. A group of girls were sitting on desks chatting, some boys were punching each other playfully and laughing, and a group of students were over by the window…playing duel monsters?

Penelope stood and watched as a blond-haired boy dueled against a girl with brown hair.

But the match was not what caught her eye. It was the small boy standing next to him.

'Yugi Mouto goes here?' She never imagined ever seeing the King of Games himself here in person. Up until now, all she had heard were stories about him, or she had seen him on TV dueling against evil foes.

He was a legend.

Penelope got a little closer to watch the match and see Yugi cheer on his blond friend who appeared mentally challenged.

"Come on Joey! You can do it. Don't give up now!" Joey placed another card down on the field.

"I play this magic card so my Panther Warrior gets five hundred more attack points."

"Oh no," the girl said. "I actually lost."

"That means I win, and Tristan owes me five bucks."

"Darn it," a tall boy with a pointy haircut said handing over his money to Joey.

Just then a tall boy with brown hair approached them.

"What are you dweebs up to now?"

"Oh, hey Kaiba. Joey just won a match against Tea. Would you like to play?" Yugi said in the nicest tone.

"And duel a third-rate duelist like Wheeler? I don't think so. I have better things to do than hang out with the likes of you."

"Well if you change your mind, we'll be going out for ice cream after school."

Penelope could not believe her eyes.

'Seto Kaiba goes here too?' Indeed, some of the best duelists went to Domino High school.

'Hm, maybe this place won't be so bad after all.'

Penelope began walking to her seat when she bumped into something.

"Why don't you watch where you're going?" She slowly looked up and saw a pair of burning ice blue eyes staring down at her.

"Sorry," she snapped. "I didn't see you."

"Didn't see? Do you even know who I am?"

Was Seto Kaiba…being a jerk to her? He had a lot of nerve!

"Oh I know who you are, but do you know who I am?"

Seto was not expecting her to talk back.

"Whoever you are, you're not that important."

"Not important?" Excuse me, Seto Kaiba, but I'll have you know that I'm the regional champion around here!"

'Penelope Fulton?' He couldn't believe his eyes. He could hardly recognize her without all that endless dark clothing and makeup that surrounded her. But she didn't look half bad. If his ego wasn't as big as it is, he might actually consider her to be pretty.

"Regional champion or not, I'm still a higher ranking duelist than you are," he said smugly.

"Keep telling yourself that." Seto walked away and sat at the back of the classroom as far away from Penelope as possible.

"Whoa. You just stood up to Kaiba?" Joey couldn't believe his ears. It wasn't everyday that someone else besides Kaiba had the last word. "He deserved it."

"Yeah, he did. I try and stand up to him but he just knocks me down every time. By the way, I'm Joey Wheeler. Duelist Kingdom finalist, Battle City Finalist, and--"

"Joey, stop that! The last thing she needs is someone like you talking her ear off." The brunette girl pushed Joey out of the way. "I'm sorry if he gave you any trouble. Joey doesn't know when to keep his mouth shut." Joey stood behind her fuming until she whacked him upside the head. "I'm Tea Gardner. That's Tristan," she said pointing to the boy with the pointy hair cut, "And that's--"

"Yugi Mouto, king of games…" Penelope walked over to Yugi's desk and sat down in the desk that had been turned around to form a makeshift card table. "You're a legend."

"Um, thanks," he said. "Aren't you Penelope Fulton?"

"Yeah.""Congratulations on defeating Weevil in the regionals yesterday."

"Hold on," Joey ran over and practically stared at Penelope. "You mean to tell me that _she's_ the regional champion?" he said pointing to Penelope.

"You got a problem with that?" she asked him.

"Joey, did you fall asleep during the match last night?" Tristan asked.

"Uh…n-no! I didn't! I swear!"

"Don't worry about it. You'll get another chance to watch me in the nationals next month."

"Nationals? I never heard of no nationals."

"It's only one of the top tournaments around. That's where Kaiba competed before he won the world tournament. Don't you pay attention to these things, Joey?" Tea said.

"No…but maybe if she wins the nationals she can win the world championship and de-throne rich boy over there."

"Well, rich boy better watch his back," Penelope said smirking.

It was about time Seto Kaiba met his match.

* * *

Thanks for reading, please read and review and I'll post chapter two later. :)


	2. Not So High and Mighty

**Chapter Two: Not So High and Mighty**

It was beyond obvious that Penelope and Seto clearly didn't get along. Despite that one flaw, Penelope liked her new school. The people were friendly, and she didn't get harassed or picked on because she was a top duelist.

As soon as she began winning lots of matches around Domino and other surrounding cities, she began getting a lot of attention. That included appearing on TV and even attending a couple of parties that were for promoting new and rare cards. She even got a chance to meet Maximillian Pegasus and have her photo taken with him. (Her rich parents managed to pull a few strings for her).

That was when the other kids started getting jealous. It started with kids wanting to duel her to try and put her down. And when they lost, that was when they started harassing her and verbally abusing her in front of everyone in the hallways between classes.

It wasn't until she told her mother about all her problems that they decided to change schools. The principal recommended having her attend Domino high school where the kids would be more accepting of her. Not to mention that some of Domino's best duelists went there as well. Natalie would also attend for her safety as well. Her parents decided it would be easier of both twins went to the same school.

Unlike most families, the Fultons could actually afford to spend a little extra money on their children. They owned a huge five-star restaurant, as well as several floating crab houses along the coast. That gave them plenty of money to send Ned to a prestigious university, allow Natalie to shop whenever she pleased, pay for Penelope's dueling hobby, and let Chris buy whatever he wanted.

The Fulton family had four children, but Penelope didn't feel like telling her new friends that. They would eventually find out that she has an older brother in college who spends most of his days playing beer pong and trying to hook up with younger girls. Eventually they would learn that Natalie was very obnoxious and selfish and only wanted to be in the limelight. And they would even learn that her younger brother Chris spends most of his money on drugs, instead of paying for his clarinet lessons and computer parts. At times, Penelope felt like she was the only normal person in her family.

Yugi invited her to hang out with him and his friends, but she declined. Even though her parents were more than willing to pay for her dueling supplies and tournaments, she wouldn't take their money. Instead she worked for it.

She had an after school job at a local restaurant where she bused tables and washed dishes. The pay wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either. It was just enough to pay for her expenses and give her a little extra money to play around with. She usually spent her extra money on keeping up her dark gothic look. Some of her relatives found it disturbing, but it helped her stand out in the dueling world. And once she started winning matches, they dropped the issue all together.

Around three thirty or so she made it to the pizza place where she worked and changed into her uniform, which was a pair of jeans, a black t-shirt and a red apron.

"Hey Penelope." Her friend Stephanie was already here and was getting a nametag out of her locker.

"Hey Steph."

"How was your first day at your new school?"

"It was alright."

"Did you make any friends?" she asked.

"Yeah. It turns out that Yugi Mouto goes to my new school."

Stephanie was flabbergasted.

"You mean the king of games? Or are you just playing with me?"

"Steph, you've known me since we were little kids. Would I ever kid?" Stephanie didn't say anything. She ran a finger through her blue-green hair, playing around with the black and red pieces that she had added to her hair a week ago.

Stephanie Larsen and Penelope Fulton had been friends since early childhood and they were so close that they were practically siblings. She was also the one person who stood by her when the other kids began harassing her because of all the attention she had received.

"No, you wouldn't kid."

After they both started their shifts, they began by cleaning up the pizza place and started setting up for the dinner rush.

"So anything else interesting happen to you?" Stephanie asked Penelope.

"No, but there was this one guy at my school who was a complete jerk."

"Really? Who?"

"Seto Kaiba."

"You mean the guy who runs a gaming company? I didn't think he would be a jerk."

"He is. I accidentally bumped into him before class and he made a huge scene about it. I never met anyone who irked me so much in my life."

"Are you going to do anything about it?" she asked, her lime green eyes looking up at her through heavy dark lashes and eyeliner.

"Yeah. I'm going to win nationals and beat him in the world championship tournament."

"Whoa, don't get ahead of yourself. Those things cost an arm and a leg to get into, and last time I checked, you were trying to save up for a car."

"I could always ask my parents. They've become more supportive in the past few months."

"That's not a bad idea. But just be careful around Seto Kaiba. You already have enough enemies as it is."

"You're right. I need to focus more on making friends instead of enemies…but it would be nice to put rich boy in his place."

"Penelope!"

She laughed and they continued preparing the pizza place for the dinner rush.

* * *

"How was your day big brother?" Seto looked up from his laptop and over the desk at his younger brother.

"Same."

Same was not exactly how he would describe his day. More like annoying.

'That annoying girl…Penelope…she had some nerve talking back to me like that…and in front of everyone!' It was fairly easy to forget about people who annoyed him. It was very easy to forget Wheeler and the other nerds. But this girl…for some reason he just couldn't get her out of his mind.

He couldn't forget about that wild hair the color of orchids, her bright turquoise eyes, her alabaster skin or her down-turned rosy pink lips. She was tall and slender, only a head shorter than he was, and she had beautiful legs that went on forever.

Normal people would admit that maybe they liked someone if they couldn't stop thinking about them. But Kaiba was not exactly a normal person. Normal seventeen year-olds are not running corporations.

Even if he did admit that he may be interested in Penelope, he did not have time for such ridiculous things. He had a company to run, straight and simple.

* * *

That weekend Penelope was invited by Yugi to hang out with him and his friends.

This time she accepted his offer and decided to bring Stephanie along with her. It was always nice to have someone with her when she was meeting new people.

Today she was dressed in a pair of ripped jeans, a white halter top, a studded leather jacket and a pair of black sandals with studs on them. Her belt was red plaid along with her hat, and she wore her favorite spiked chocker around her neck. Her makeup was equally dark, especially the dark purple eye shadow she had on.

Stephanie's look was also on the extreme side, but more colorful than Penelope who mostly wore black. Stephanie had on a black t-shirt, lime-green jeans, black sneakers and all of her jewelry was electric blue.

There was a knock on the door to Penelope's room. She got up from the plush white rug that sat on the floor of her room and opened the door.

"Natalie."

"I'm going to the mall. Can I borrow one of your miniskirts?"

"Sure." Penelope and Natalie may not see eye to eye on a lot of things, but had no problem with borrowing each other's clothes. Natalie went over to her twin sister's dark and twisted closet that had a silver spider web curtain. She moved the curtain aside and pulled out a denim mini skirt. With safety pins in it.

"Why the hell are there safety pins in this?"

"You've got a problem with creativity?" Penelope asked her sister.

"Take them out," she ordered.

"I don't have to do anything. You can take them out yourself. Just put them back in when you're done with my skirt."

"Fine, have it your way." Natalie left the room and Penelope sighed and closed the door.

"I apologize for her rudeness."

"Don't worry about it. We should get going now. I don't want to keep your friends waiting."

"They'll be your friends too before you know it," Penelope said opening the door and leaving her room.

Down the hall was Ned's room. The plain white door was shut, but on the other side she knew there was a collage of posters of half-naked girls and sports teams all over the walls.

Natalie's room was on the other end of the house, and it was a huge wash of pink and other girly things that Penelope could not stand.

Chris's room was next door and she didn't mind being next to him. He was usually quiet due to the fact he was on the computer, getting high, or both. His room was very messy, the floor covered in clothes, and the walls painted dark blue.

Penelope loved her room. It had red walls, a black bedspread with spider web curtains, black furniture and a plush white rug, and a zebra striped chair. Her room was always neat and despite the constant objection from her parents about the dark theme, they did appreciate the fact that she kept her room clean.

The two girls went down the large wooden staircase and out the front door. They would be meeting Yugi and the others at the park, and it wasn't a long walk to get there. Even though Penelope changed schools, she still lived in the same house since she was born.

* * *

"Hey Penelope!" Tristan was waving to her as she and Stephanie approached the park.

"Hi Tristan."

Tea, Joey and Yugi also said hello.

"And who's your friend?" Joey asked pointing to the girl standing next to Penelope.

"Everyone, this is my friend Stephanie. Stephanie, meet Yugi, Tristan, Joey and Tea," she said pointing to each of her new friends.

"It's nice to meet all of you."

"We were just getting started on a game of Frisbee, you want to join in?" Tea asked.

"Sounds good to me," Stephanie said.

The group separated into two teams, with Penelope being on a team with Yugi and Tristan, and Stephanie teaming up with Joey and Tea. Even though they didn't exactly know the rules of how to play, they still had a blast.

"Hey Penelope, go long!" Tristan yelled out to her. Penelope ran over to the other end of the field and Tristan threw the Frisbee. She was getting ready to catch it, but she miscalculated how high it was going and the Frisbee sailed straight through the trees and towards another section of the park.

"Oops, sorry!" Tristan called out.

"That's okay, I'll get it!" Penelope called back. She ran through the trees and stopped when she saw the one person she never wanted to see holding her Frisbee. Seto Kaiba appeared rather irritated, especially since he had his hand over his nose.

'Not so high and mighty now, are you?' Penelope thought smugly.

"Is this yours?" he asked sourly.

"Yeah. Can you give it back?"

He glared at her through those icy blue eyes.

"I will if you promise to watch where you throw your toys."

"I would if I was the one who threw it."

"I don't care who threw it. You and the dweebs need to get out of my hair."

"Geez, are you always this cranky after someone throws a Frisbee at your face?" Penelope said through her teeth.

Kaiba tossed the Frisbee back to her, and she caught it. He didn't expect that she would.

For a short moment, she thought she saw a hint of surprise in his eyes.

"Don't you have somewhere to be?" Seto said, clearly annoyed.

"You mean away from assholes like you?"

Seto was close to fuming at this point as he went from being annoyed to irritated. His glare was more intense and most sensible people would run away at this point. But not Penelope.

"Enough with the tough guy act, you don't scare me," she said crossing her arms.

"Big brother!" a younger kid with long black hair came running towards the two arguing teens. She could tell he was much laid back and carefree than his older brother, who was wearing a suit with a long trench coat in the middle of a bright fall afternoon.

"You promised you would play catch with me, why are you standing around talking to girls?"

"Mokuba, I'm in the middle of something, if you don't mind."

"Well, then I'll leave you two then," Penelope said. "I've got better things to do than to put up with you."

She walked away and Mokuba and Seto stood there, staring at her. Mokuba was still trying to figure out who interrupted their game of catch. Seto on the other hand was staring at _her_. He may of disliked Penelope, but even he couldn't resist the hormones in him that drove him to begin having endless fantasies about what could be underneath that white halter top or those tight jeans.

"Seto, wasn't that Penelope Fulton? Are you guys friends or something?"

Seto glared at his younger brother.

"We are not friends. She is nothing but a thorn in my side and I can't wait to crush her in a duel."

"Duel?"

"Yes. I'm going to host another tournament. Not only will I crush Yugi, but I will humiliate Penelope as well. Then maybe she'll think twice about talking back to me."

Mokuba sighed.

"Whatever you say Seto."

* * *

Thanks for reading! Please review! :)


	3. A Flawless Plan

**Chapter Three: A Flawless Plan**

Seto decided the best thing to do would be to have a tournament. Not only would he humiliate Penelope by defeating her, but he could see what kind of duelist she really was. He wanted to see if she was really as good as she said she was. And of course, what better way than to make a fool out of Yugi as well. If he defeated Yugi, then once again he would be the king of games.

'My plan is perfect. Now all I have to do is have Roland set everything up.' Seto hit a buzzer on his desk.

"Roland, I need you do something for me."

"Of course, Mr. Kaiba. What can I do for you?"

"I would like to have another tournament. And this time I will have the pleasure of dueling Yugi Mouto once again."

"Of course Mr. Kaiba."

Seto leaned back in his chair and smirked.

It was going all according to plan…

* * *

"Give me back my halter, now!" Natalie screeched.

"Give me my miniskirt first."

"No way! You took my halter without asking and I want it back!"

Penelope picked the white halter off from her bed and tossed at her twin's head.

Natalie grumbled and tossed her sister's skirt back at her, hoping the pins would smack her in the face.

Suddenly the door opened, and their younger brother Chris stood before them, bright neon headphones on his head, his turquoise eyes glazed over into a stupor.

"Dudes, keep it down will ya? I'm trying to fix my duel disk."

"Yeah Natalie," Penelope said egging her sister on. "Keep the noise down." Natalie grumbled and walked out of Penelope's dark room and back to her pink sanctuary.

"What are you doing with a duel disk anyway?" Penelope asked her brother after her sister stormed down the hall back to her room.

"Dude, there's a tournament coming up. And I just hit the jackpot man." Penelope rolled her eyes.

"Is there a marijuana monster that just got released?" Penelope asked him with added sarcasm.

"No, it's way better. Come on, I'll show you." She sighed and followed her younger brother into his room. As usual it was a huge mess, the floor was covered in clothes, and there was a bag of cheese curls spilled out all over his bed.

'He must've been high earlier.' She tried to help her brother and get him to stop smoking, but he was so stubborn. He didn't want to quit.

"Yeah, I like totally got these awesome cards. Want one?" Chris held out a huge stack of cards to her and Penelope went through them, amazed at how many rare cards were in this stack. One stood out to her.

"Mind on Air."

"You can have her. She's not that hot," he said.

"Wow, um, thanks Chris."

"No prob. You'll need all the luck you can get…especially if you duel against me."

"Against you? Are you serious?" Chris smirked. "You think you're the only one who can duel? I've been practicing with some of my friends and I've managed to beat every single one of them."

"Chris, you don't know what you're getting yourself into. There's a lot of really good duelists out there, even ones that are way better than me."

"Yeah…I know. Kaiba is the one putting on the tournament. He probably wants to challenge that Yugi kid again…or something."

"Kaiba is putting on the tournament!" Penelope's eyes were wide with surprise…and then she wondered…

'Why would he? He's already put on Battle City already…Does he really hate Yugi that much still?'

No matter what Kaiba's motive was, one thing still held true: She did not like him.

* * *

"Where exactly is the tournament being held?" Joey asked as Penelope and Yugi stared at the advertisement poster.

"It's on a riverboat line," Yugi said.

"Fulton's Crab House? I never heard of them," Tea said.

"I have," said Penelope. "It's my family's riverboat."

"Hold on a sec, you mean to tell me that your family owns a riverboat?"

"A restaurant chain as well," Tristan whispered in his hear.

"So you're like rich? That's so…awesome!" Tea bonked Joey on the back of the head.

"What did I do now?"

"I don't think she wants the whole school to know that," Tea snapped.

"Don't worry…I don't care if everyone knows."

"Apparently Kaiba already knows too," Yugi said. "It says that your family is catering the event and putting on the entertainment. Sounds like Kaiba is spending a lot of money on this event."

"Yeah…but why? He can't still hate you, can he?" Tristan asked. "He probably wants to duel me too," Penelope said clenching her fists. "This always happens every time I win. As soon as I do, suddenly everyone wants to duel me."

"I know how you feel," Yugi said. "I have the same problem."

"Yeah, we're always a magnet for bad guys," Tristan said. "But don't worry, as long as we stick together, there isn't anything we can't do."

The whole group cheered, getting a couple strange looks from the other kids in the hallway, including Seto.

"What are you geeks cheering about?"

Penelope was the first to turn around, with her hands on her hips and her turquoise eyes burning into his.

"We've decided to take part in your little tournament on my family's ship."

"Really. And do you think that you'll be able to compete with the best duelists in the world?"

"I don't know. Isn't that something _you_ should be worried about?"

The other students started gathering around and started oohing in response to each of their comments.

"Are your comebacks as lame as your dueling skills?" Kaiba snapped back. "Because if you think you're going to win my tournament, you've got another thing coming." Penelope rolled her eyes.

"Are you saying that because you're afraid of loosing to a girl?"

Kaiba towered over her, looking down at her through his signature glare.

"I don't loose," he said. "And this time I'll win the entire tournament and take back my title."

"Keep dreaming Kaiba. Keep dreaming." She turned around and walked away.

"You should be the one who's dreaming," he called out to her. "You don't stand a chance."

Penelope ignored him and continued on her way to the next class, her friends joining her. The crowd dispersed and everyone went on their way…except for one person.

Natalie Fulton. Penelope's sister. Kaiba had physics with her, not that he cared. But she had a striking resemblance to Penelope. The same fair skin, turquoise eyes, orchid hair and fair skin. The only difference was that her hair was as straight as a pin, rather than wildly curly like her twin's. She had her hands on her hips, exactly the same way that Penelope had just moments ago. Even though the twins were clearly opposite, they sure seemed alike to him.

"You think you're so smart…do you?"

Kaiba's ice blue eyes formed a hard glare at the person standing before him.

"What are you talking about?"

"You think you're so smart throwing that little tournament of yours and having the event hosted on my parent's ship. But we both know it's just a cover."

"I don't know what you're talking about. Why don't you leave?"

"Don't play dumb. I've seen the way you look at her."

Kaiba wouldn't dare admit that he had been staring at her every time he saw her. Most of the classes he sat in back, so there wasn't much to see. But gym class was different. While the boys did push ups or played soccer, the girls were running track or doing aerobics. And Kaiba would often take an occasional glance at her. She didn't notice, but when she did, she would glare at him and say "What are you looking at?" and then she would go back to what she was doing and so would he.

"What's your point?" he said. "As much as I would love to see you crush her in the duel, even I am not that cruel."

"And why would you care about my tournament?"

Natalie grabbed him by the shoulder, her long manicured nails digging into him like a hook.

"Because, I'm looking out for my little sister, that's why. And if you ever hurt her, you'll have to deal with me."

"And I should be afraid of you?"

"Yes. Just because I'm a cheerleader doesn't mean I can't kick your ass. I'm more than just a pretty girl, you know."

"Whatever. You're wasting my time." Kaiba started walking away, and Natalie grabbed him again and pulled him back.

"I can help you win my sister over. Think about it. Wouldn't you rather have her than humiliate her?"

Kaiba turned around with a look of surprise.

"Yeah, that's right. I know that you like her. It's written all over your face."

"I do not like her," he said trying to deny it. "She's one of the most vile, annoying girls I've ever met."

"Hey, I'm the only one who can say that about my sister. Now, if you want to win her over, here's what you have to do…"

Kaiba listened in and nodded, eating up every one of Natalie's words like candy.

By what she said to him it sounded as if it were….a flawless plan.

* * *

Well, there you are. Three chapters done. I just wish someone would review. It would really be nice, then maybe I'll finish the story faster :)

Thanks for reading. :)


	4. Unexpected

**Chapter Four: Unexpected**

Seto decided he needed to alter his so called "flawless" plan. After all, Natalie had exposed his true motive for the tournament, and she threatened to tell her sister if he didn't heed her advice.

She began by telling him about Penelope. Her history to be exact.

It turns out that the twins were heavily involved with cheerleading, and were some of the best flyers on the team. But then Penelope started acting weird. She got her eyebrow pierced, and she started wearing a lot more makeup. Then she stopped showing up for practice, and when Natalie confronted her, Penelope told her that she wasn't happy anymore and wanted to find her own happiness. She quit the squad, started dressing in black and spent all her time playing duel monsters with their brother Chris. Natalie said her sister was so distant from her now that she didn't even know her anymore.

"If anyone is going to get through to her and under her skin, it's you. In the past two years she's put up this wall and she won't let me through."

"How do I get her to stop hating me?" he said.

"Well for one, you should let down your wall too." Kaiba was surprised when she said that. "Don't play dumb. I can read you like a book. It's just one of the many talents I have."

"How do I do that?"

"You'll have to stop arguing with her and start treating her like a normal person."

"She's going to get suspicious," he said.

"It doesn't hurt to try it. But if it doesn't work, let me know. I have a few more tricks up my sleeve."

"What kind of tricks would those be?" he asked with a smirk. Natalie smirked back.

"I'll tell you when the time comes. But for now, try to be nice to my sister. She's had a rough couple of months."

Kaiba decided the best thing to do after that conversation would be to try and be nice to Penelope. Get to know her. Find out what she likes.

'She's not going to want to talk to me…but perhaps her friends might…'

* * *

Penelope and her friends decided to go out for ice cream. Stephanie was already standing at the counter, enjoying a coconut ice cream covered in chocolate fudge and rainbow sprinkles.

"Hey, what flavor is that?" Joey asked.

"Coconut."

"Coconut? Why the hell would they make coconut ice cream?"

"Why the hell won't you just shut your yap and try it?" Stephanie said back.

Joey was taken aback by her remark. This was the first time any one, let alone a girl ever said anything like that to him. Well, there was Tea, but she was more of a friend. On a scale of one to ten, Stephanie would be a ten.

"Fine, I'll try it," he said narrowing his eyes at her. "Give me what she's got, my man."

"Sure thing," the guy behind the counter said to him. Shortly after, Joey was sitting with Stephanie, actually enjoying a coconut ice cream covered in chocolate fudge and rainbow sprinkles.

Penelope smirked at them as she enjoyed her cookie dough ice cream.

'It looks like Stephanie found someone she actually likes.'

Stephanie Larsen was not an easy person to befriend. She was stubborn, vain and had a wild streak. Penelope quit cheerleading, Stephanie stuck by her and encouraged her to find her real passion, which turned out to be duel monsters. There was just something about that game that excited her and held her interest.

She would never admit it, but part of the reason she began dueling was because of Seto Kaiba. There was something about him that was so strong and inspiring that she wanted to be like him.

Strong, smart, never takes crap from anyone or lets anyone push them around.

That was the person she really wanted to be. Not the cute cheerleader who was always being tossed up in the air or being told how to act and how to look. But Stephanie wasn't like that. She did what she wanted when she wanted, and Penelope loved her for that.

It was because of Stephanie's encouragement that Penelope decided to start rebelling against what she was. That included changing her appearance and starting her gothic phase.

'Stephanie and Joey do look cute together,' she thought. Tea sat down next to her and they started chatting the afternoon away.

* * *

Kaiba typed in a couple words and began searching his duelist data base.

'There she is.'

Penelope Fulton. Age 17. There was a photo of her in her usual look of dark clothes and dark makeup. Then it told of her awards, her rarest card, her ranking (he gave her four out of five stars), and where she was from.

Town of origin: Domino City.

He kept searching and reading until he came across the name of her old school.

'That's it. I just need to find a couple of her old classmates and talk to them. I'm sure they'll tell me everything I want to know.'

* * *

On a Thursday afternoon, Kaiba decided he would pay a visit to Penelope's old school. Mokuba and everyone would else would take care of the company until he got home. As he walked through the school yard, he got a lot of strange looks from the students that went here, along with a lot of whispers.

"Whoa, is that Seto Kaiba?"

"What's he doing here?"

"He's looking fine today."

"Yeah, I wonder if he'll look at us."

Kaiba ignored their stares and whispers and approached the cheerleading squad, all of whom were in the middle of warming up.

A tall blonde haired girl with brown eyes turned around.

"Why…hello there. I'm Elizabeth. Come to watch me and my squad practice?"

"No," he said plainly. "I was wondering if you could tell me about Penelope Fulton." He handed her picture over to the blonde girl and her eyes narrowed and her mouth turned into a frown.

"Oh. Why would you want to know about her?"

"Because I'm having a tournament and I need to find out her weakness so I can beat her."

"Oooh. Is it one of those duel monsters tournaments? Those are so lame?"

"Lame? Excuse me, but do you have any idea who I am?"

"Um, no. Should I care?"

"Yes you should. I'm the head of the largest gaming company in the world."

The blonde cheerleader's eyes widened with surprise.

"_You're_ Seto Kaiba? I thought it was some old geeky dude who ran that place. I didn't imagine you would be so…_hot_."

"And I didn't imagine that _you_ would be _wasting_ so much of my time. Are you going to tell me about Penelope or not?"

"Fine." She turned around at the squad. "Everyone, take a lap around the field, and then you guys can have a five minute break." The other cheerleaders began their run without question.

"Okay Kaiba, here's what I know. Penelope and her sister were our best flyers. I thought for sure that by senior year Penelope could end up being captain. But she threw all her potential away for well…card games. And then when she started getting good, the other kids started harassing her. It was like the all wanted a piece of her, you know? Then she and her sister changed schools."

"Her sister already told me that. Is there anything you know of her…like what she likes and doesn't like?"

"Are you trying to get with her? Because if you are, just watch yourself. She's a bit of a firecracker."

"Yes, I've noticed," he said sarcastically. "Now, tell me what else you know about her."

"Well, she likes competition, rock music, and cookie dough ice cream. Oh, and she's best friends with this weird girl. Her name is Stephanie Larsen. She goes here, but knowing Penelope she's probably taken her with her to meet her new friends. But I doubt she has any new friends."

"She hangs around with a bunch of geeks," Kaiba said plainly. Elizabeth laughed.

"I am so not surprised. Is there anything else you need to know?" she asked.

"What are some things she doesn't like?" he asked. "That way I can be sure to avoid them when I'm around her."

"Well, she hates stuck up guys, country music and cracking knuckles. I'm sure she has tons of other things she hates, but those are the three biggest ones."

"Alright. I should get going. Thanks."

"You're welcome. And if you ever want to go out some time, just come and see me."

Kaiba ignored that last comment and left the school grounds and headed back to his mansion. It was on the limo ride home that he decided it wouldn't be a bad idea to find her best friend and talk to her. If he could get her to think of him as a good guy and not a jerk, then it would only be a matter of time before Penelope would think the same way.

Kaiba returned home later that day and sat through another boring meeting. Usually he was well focused but today was not the case. Every so often he kept think of her. Those fathomless eyes the color of the sea, those soft curls that were bright purple…like an exotic flower, that fair ivory skin, those sweet pink lips, and if only she wasn't wearing that black leather jacket. Maybe then he could see the rest of her body that she built from all those years of cheerleading.

Yes, she was very beautiful, but she wasn't like all the other girls. He could tell even just from knowing her for only a week. She didn't throw herself at him, and got under his skin like no one else ever has. She fought him every step of the way.

That was what he liked about her.

* * *

"So you're entering Kaiba's tournament too?" Yugi asked her at registration.

"Yeah. If he wants a duel, I'll give him one."

"Well I wish you the best of luck, and may the best man, uh, _duelist_ win." Penelope smiled and nodded.

The registrar asked their names and typed each one into the database, showing their photo, their dueling history and their ranking.

"Wow, Yugi. Five stars. That's impressive," Penelope said as Yugi's profile showed up on the screen.

"Okay, now it's my turn," Penelope said.

"Name?"

"Penelope Fulton." The registrar typed her name in and her profile came up, showing her usual photo, her dueling history and her ranking.

"Four out of five. Well, at least he didn't put me down as a one star duelist like he did to Joey."

"I heard that!" Joey shouted from across the room. Joey was practically fuming when he saw his ranking. But after a little bit of negotiating, they put him down as a four star duelist like they did in Battle City. Penelope wanted win that tournament so badly, but she ended up loosing to Weevil Underwood, of all people. Luckily she got her revenge in the regional championship, but it would only be a matter of time before he and his buddy Rex Raptor decided to go after her.

But this time she would be ready for those two idiots. Then she could face off against even greater duelists like Joey, or Yugi or even Mai Valentine.

"Well, now that we're all registered, let's go visit my grandpa's game shop. He's got a bunch of rare cards we can use for the tournament," Yugi said with excitement.

"Sounds good to me. Are you coming Joey?" Joey was arguing with a seven year old over their card decks.

"Yeah, coming. Sorry kid, another time." The kid stuck his tongue out at Joey and said a couple of rude curse words. But lucky for him, Tristan and Tea dragged him out of the building kicking and screaming like a child and down the street towards the Mouto game shop.

* * *

I hope you guys liked it. I don't think I did too bad for someone who has little time on their hands. But you want to know what I need to keep this going?

**Reviews!**

So please, please, please....review. It'll make me very, very happy. :D

Later. :)


	5. Give Peace A Chance

**Chapter Five: Give Peace A Chance**

"Hey Grandpa!" Yugi said excitedly as the gang entered his grandfather's game shop. Solomon Mouto was sweeping the floor and organizing the shelves as usual.

"Why, hello Yugi. How was your day?"

"Great! I registered for the upcoming tournament."

"That's wonderful. So what brings you here?"

"Penelope, Joey and I are hoping you could help us out with our decks."

"Of course." Solomon looked past Yugi and saw Penelope and Stephanie hanging back behind the group. "And those are you're new friends you told me about?"

"Yes," Yugi said moving aside. "This is Penelope Fulton. She's new at our school. And the girl next to her is Stephanie. She doesn't go to our school, but she and Penelope have been friends since childhood."

"Ah, so you're the regional champion I've been hearing about," Solomon said looking up at Penelope. She nodded. "And you must be related to Chris Fulton then?"

"Yes. He's my younger brother."

"He's one of my best customers. Bit of an unusual taste in cards, though."

"Yeah, that's him. He gave me one." Penelope pulled a card out of her pocket, showing the monster, Mind on Air.

"Yes. I see. That's a very rare monster. Not many people can get their hands on a monster like that."

"Hey grandpa, why don't you know them the new shipment of cards you just got in?"

"That sounds like a splendid idea." Solomon put down his broom and led the group to the back room of his shop. All of his rarest and most powerful cards were stored in there, some of them being ones Yugi hadn't even heard of.

"And right here I have some new dragon monsters."

"Green-eyes silver dragon? I never heard of this card," Joey said.

"That's because only two of them exist on the entire planet. And was lucky enough to have one of them. They're even rarer than the blue-eyes white dragon."

"Yeah, but who is gonna get it?" Joey asked. Solomon looked at Yugi. Yugi shook his head.

"You don't want this Yugi?" he asked his grandson.

"No thanks. I think I'll look around at the spell caster monsters," he said wandering over to cards that were similar to the dark magician. Tea, Tristan and Stephanie were going through a huge stack of cards, debating over which cards would work best in a duel. Tea was eyeing a monster with a fluffy body and wings, while Tristan and Stephanie were both talking about a warrior card that Tristan seemed to be interested in.

"Joey, would you like to take the green-eyes silver dragon?" Solomon asked him.

"Well…uh…nah. I don't think I'll need it. Besides, I already have the red-eyes black dragon."

"Penelope, would you like to take it?"

"Really? You mean I can just have it for free?"

"Well…yes. You can have it. Just don't loose it in a duel."

"I won't," she said. She stared down at the card, admiring how beautiful the dragon was. It wasn't full of spikes or horns like most. It was a lot sleeker and beautiful with gleaming silver skin and glowing green eyes.

'I just hope I don't have to duel the other person that has this card,' she thought.

"Well then, is everyone all set?" Solomon asked.

"Yeah," Joey said. "I think that the dragon dice will help me out in this duel."

"And I've got the original illusion magician," Yugi said showing his card to everyone.

"Which one did you get Penelope?" Tea asked her as they left the shop.

"I got this," she said showing Tea her new card.

"Green-eyes silver dragon? I've never heard of that one before."

"That's because it's extremely rare. There's only one other card like it in the world," Yugi said.

"Man, that's pretty cool," Tristan said. "I wonder who has the other one?"

"Well I don't think they'll stand a chance against Penelope," Stephanie said. "After all, she's one of the best duelists I know."

Penelope nodded and the group continued walking down the street.

* * *

Penelope groaned as she walked down the street, helping Natalie carry most of her shopping bags. Natalie walked with only two bags in her hand (one being her purse) and chatted mindlessly on her cell phone. It was a shame that her parents never got either them a car yet. But next year both of them would each be getting the car of their choice without worrying about how much it cost. Their parents would certainly take care of that.

Soon the twins arrived home with Natalie full of energy as she walked through the door of their mansion, and Penelope nearing exhaustion as she came close to dropping the bags on the floor.

"Don't drop those!" she whined. "There's some expensive stuff in there!" Penelope groaned and followed Natalie upstairs to her room, which was decorated in pink walls, pink furniture, and a fluffy white carpet on the floor. There were posters of her favorite actors on the walls, and she sat down her bed and pulled a file out of her purse and began filing her nails. Who does she think she is? The queen of Sheba?

"Just put those on my bed," Natalie said casually as she filed her long French manicured nails. Penelope complied with her request and wanted to collapse onto the floor after placing all those heavy bags onto her sister's bed.

"So what the hell is all this about?" she asked Natalie. "Why are you making me do this when you already have plenty of guys who would do it for you?"

Natalie stopped filing her nails and looked up at her sister through her equally turquoise eyes. She brushed her bangs out from her eyes and sighed.

"Look Penelope, I know that we haven't gotten along that well lately…but I was hoping we could try this again. And as upset as I was with you for quitting cheerleading, I've decided to support you and your dueling." Penelope cocked her head to the side, not sure whether or not she should believe her.

"Are you for real?" Natalie nodded.

"Of course. I may be selfish and self-absorbed at times, but I haven't forgotten about you. Actually, I sort of miss you."

"I've missed you too Natalie," Penelope said taking a seat in the plush pink chair across from her sister, who was still seated on her pink canopy bed. For a while they talked about everything that the other twin had missed, including the up and coming tournament that was to be hosted by Seto Kaiba on their family's cruise line.

"Wow, sounds like fun. I hope you do well."

"Me too. Kaiba is going to be in the tournament, and we're not exactly the best of friends."

"I've noticed," Natalie said. "You two seem to fight a lot."

"Unfortunately. But the guy is such an ass! He thinks he's better than everybody. And it made me so mad that I had to say something."

"Well, here's my idea. Why don't you try and not fight with him during the tournament?" Penelope was _not_ impressed with what her sister just said.

"There is no way that'll happen. Never before in my life has anyone ever gotten under my skin like he has. Argh! It drives me crazy just thinking about it!" Natalie sighed.

"Well, would you like to know why I went shopping?"

"For the hell of it?" Natalie shook her head.

"No dummy, I went shopping for you. If you're going to duel in that tournament then I think you should look good doing it."

"Whatever. As long as it's not pink."

"I kept that in mind," Natalie said taking some clothes out of some of the bags. "Now why don't you try on a couple of outfits." Penelope sighed and picked out a few items and got up from the chair started trying them on. Indeed, it would be a long afternoon.

* * *

Seto sighed and lay back in his chair staring at the ceiling for the umpteenth time today.

He had just come out of another weekly meeting and he was bored out of his mind. All he could think about was Penelope. Even during the meeting he would fantasize about her, hoping that he could try having a normal conversation with her. But first he needed to be alone with her.

'It's never going to happen,' he thought sadly 'not if she keeps irritating me to no end!' He slammed his fist hard against his desk, nearly cracking his own hand instead of the polished metal surface.

The doors to his office opened and Roland stood before him, waiting for Seto to say something to him.

"Mr. Kaiba, the preparations are complete. The Fulton Riverboat will be ready to go on Friday morning."

"Good. How is the registration process going?"

"There have been dozens of duelists that have registered for the tournament."

"Exactly how many?"

"About seventy-five," he said. "Will the riverboat have enough room for all of them?"

"Yes. It can fit about three hundred guests comfortably. They'll also have enough room to bring at least one friend."

"There will probably be about two hundred passengers on board, sir. Will the Fulton's be prepared for this?"

"Of course they'll be," Kaiba said. "I've put in the money for it and they've accepted my generous offer. After all, without my tournament, their business would go under in the next year anyway. I'm actually saving them."

It was true. The Fulton's once thriving business of crab houses and restaurants was having a hard time staying afloat, especially since it's becoming harder to find the rare Alaskan king crab they had become so famous for serving. When they heard that Kaiba Corp. needed a place to host their tournament, they gladly offered for Seto's company to use their riverboat.

But there was one more thing that the Fulton's needed to do in order to save their business…they needed Seto to marry one of their daughters. Then both families would be connected and more financially secure in the end.

Seto had the exact person in mind that he wanted.

The Fulton's…had other ideas…

* * *

There you guys go, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. I'd also like to thank those who reviewed. Your comments are very much appreciated. Thanks again. :)


	6. Check Out the Competition

**Chapter Six: Check Out the Competition**

Penelope and her friends waited in the harbor, staring up at the giant riverboat her parents owned.

"Fulton's Crab House," Tristan said reading the sign. "I heard they have the best crab legs in the world."

"You bet they do," Stephanie said. "I went there once for a buffet and I ate so many crab legs…I thought I would be sick. Those Alaskan king crabs are to die for."

"Really? I heard they're an endangered species," Tea said. "Or soon to be endangered."

"Endangered or not, those particular crabs are what keep the place running," Penelope said. "If the Alaskan king crab were to become extinct, I don't think the restaurant would do so well."

"Well, what are we standing around here for?" Joey said loudly. "Let's get on board already!" Yugi followed Joey to the ship, with Penelope, Tristan, Tea and Stephanie following close behind. A few minutes after the other duelists boarded the boat, it took off down the long winding river through the thick boggy woods.

The ship was a large white riverboat, with the words "Fulton's Crab House" written in red writing. There were tons of other duelists and guest on board already, mingling and showing cards to each other, or even having conversations that didn't relate to duel monsters.

Penelope walked through the crowd with Stephanie, both of them sticking out like sore thumbs among all the jeans and t-shirts worn by everyone else. Stephanie had a lavender sweatshirt, orange skinny jeans, orange sneakers, and several black star necklaces and earrings. Her blue-green, black and red hair was disheveled as usual, and she went a bit heavy on the eyeliner today.

Penelope stood out even more with her black outfit. Her leather jacket had studs and spikes on it, her mini-skirt was frayed with safety pins in it, her black and bright red socks went up to her thighs, visible under her black combat boots that were covered in buckles. Her hair was down and today she had her eyebrow ring in, as well as a good healthy dose of her favorite plum lipstick. Being fair with turquoise eyes and orchid hair was not an easy feat, especially in finding lipstick. Reds and browns clashed with her horribly, and her only options were either pink (which she couldn't stand) or plum.

The two girls walked along the deck and saw plenty of amateur duelists, most of them foolishly thinking they could make it to the finals and win. Penelope knew better. She used to be one of them. A couple of them were in awe of her, while others were a bit creeped out by her look.

"Come on," Stephanie said walking towards the set of stairs that led down to the lower decks. "Let's go find our room.""What about the others?" Penelope asked.

"I already told Joey where we would be. Now come on, let's go." Penelope followed Stephanie down the stairs and through a very elegantly decorated dining room. Of course, it was nothing new to her. She had been on this boat dozens of times with her parents on business trips and dealings.

They walked down a huge grand staircase and past all the tables and a parquet dance floor complete with a stage meant for live performances. The walls were done in a golden brocade with an oak border and finish on the floor, with an occasional ivory accent--the same color as the chair cushions and the table cloths.

"Wow, your parents must have done some remodeling," Stephanie said as the girls made their way down the hall to their suite. Tea would be sharing with them, but right now she was probably preoccupied with meeting up with old friends on deck.

They put their suitcases on their beds, and Penelope looked around the room. It was done in a red brocade wallpaper, with the same oak and ivory accents as there were in the dining room. The bathroom was larger than average, with ivory walls and a neatly folded pile of terracotta and white towels next to a set of toiletries.

"Wow. No matter how many times I come here, it always looks amazing," Stephanie said looking around the room.

"I just wonder when the tournament will started," Penelope said. "It's not like Kaiba to keep us waiting.""I'm sure it'll be starting soon," Stephanie said.

Just then a loud, smooth but masculine voice was heard over the intercom.

"Attention passengers, all duelists are asked to meet in the grand ballroom immediately."

"Well, that's our cue," Penelope said leaving the room. Stephanie followed and they went down the hall to where dozens of duelists had already gathered. Penelope immediately went over to Yugi and Joey, while Stephanie hung back with Tristan and Tea to watch.

"So, where's rich boy at?" Joey asked crossing his arms. "Hey! Where the hell are ya!" he shouted.

"I'm right up here, Wheeler." Seto Kaiba jumped (yes, jumped) down from the balcony and did a graceful landing in the center of the room in front of everyone.

"What a showoff," Penelope said. But she couldn't help but secretly admire his entrance. 'For a guy who spends nearly all his time playing duel monsters, he's probably in really good shape too.'

"Welcome to my tournament," he said smirking at the crowd. "Unlike the last tournament I held, this one will be a bit longer."

"Longer?" Joey asked. "You mean we have to spend a couple days cooped up on this ship with you?"

"Yes, you do. In fact, the tournament is three days long. Here's how it'll work. Mokuba! Turn on the screen."

"You've got it, big brother!" a higher pitched voice shouted from the balcony above. A huge big screen monitor came down from the ceiling, showing a short film of the contest.

_Each duelist must have a duel disk and can duel anywhere on the ship. The international dueling rules will apply to each match. This means that each player will have four thousand life points and can have up to five monsters on the field. At the end of the first day, the boat will dock at the next down and drop off all the loosing contestants. _

_The second day will follow in the same fashion. Whoever remains on the ship without loosing a match will be a finalist. _

_On the third day the finalists will participate in a small tournament and the winner will receive a special grand prize. _

The screen shut off and went back up and Seto Kaiba stood in the middle of the room with his arms crossed. His expression was stern and everyone instantly quieted down. For a seventeen year-old, he had a very powerful presence.

"So what's the prize?" a random duelist in the back shouted.

"Well then, I'll guess you'll have to win the tournament to find out. So…it's time to duel!" he raised his hand in the air. "Let the tournament begin!"

Penelope, Joey and Yugi immediately decided the best way to start winning the tournament would be to take on the amateurs that dared to challenge them. A young duelist by the name of Leah decided to take him on. Although she was a tough opponent for Yugi, he managed to pull through and win the match. Joey ended up dueling against a young boy who's name he didn't know, and Penelope ended up bumping into Rex Raptor, the accomplice of Weevil Underwood--who lost to her in the regional's.

The match itself proved to be difficult. Rex threw out every dinosaur type monster in his deck, while Penelope struggled to fight back with her dark-themed deck of monsters. She had a good set of trap and spell cards, one of her spell cards being a field spell that sent everything into darkness. But Rex managed to get past her tricks and knocked her down to only 500 life points. Penelope got back on her feet when she took control of one of his monsters and sacrificed it to play Mind on Air, the monster her brother gave her. Rex was in trouble for that turn, but once he drew his best monster, she was out of luck--until she drew her green-eyes silver dragon. Finally she was able to win the duel, with Rex leaving the ship that night--completely humiliated.

* * *

Now that the day of dueling was done, the competition had been cut down to 32 duelists. Seto was quite pleased that so many duelists were eliminated the first day. Better yet, Penelope was still on board…his plan was starting to come together, but not quite yet. He needed to see her.

The door to Kaiba's private suite opened, and Mokuba was standing in the doorway.

"Hello Mokuba."

"Hey Seto. I heard you won three matches today, congratulations!" he said smiling.

"Thank you," he said. "How are things going in the dining hall?"

"Everything is going great. The tables are set, and I had Rowland give the invitations to all the duelists on board."

"Thank you, Mokuba. You may go now."

"Okay Seto, I guess I'll see you later then." He nodded to his younger brother and watched the door close behind him.

"Now to get dressed," he said to himself as he made his way to his closet and began to change.

"What is that under the door?" Tea asked.

"I don't know," Stephanie said. "I'll check it out." She took the item from under the door and noticed that it was a white envelope. She tore it open to find a fancy white card that was covered in a gold leaf vine pattern inside.

"It's an invitation," she said showing it to Tea and Penelope.

_Dear Duelists,_

_You are cordially invited to the Riverboat Tournament formal dance tonight at 8 o'clock. _

_Sincerely, _

_Seto Kaiba, Kaiba Corp._

The logo appeared on the top of the invitation, as well as on the outside of the card.

"Well girls, it looks like we've been invited to a dance," said Tea glancing at the invitation.

"And its formal," Penelope said sighing.

"What's wrong with that?" Stephanie asked. "You love dances."

"Not ones put on by Kaiba. I bet its going to be boring as hell."

"Well if it isn't…we'll make it fun," Stephanie said with a devious smirk. "Remember those school dances last year? Remember how much fun we made them?"

"Yeah…but I really don't want to deal with him."

"Don't worry," Tea said. "Kaiba is like, the most boring person on earth. He doesn't even dance. I bet you he won't even be there."

"Well, what do you say?" Stephanie asked. "Are you up for it?"

Penelope looked at her two friends and smiled.

"Yeah…let's do this."

* * *

That's it for now. Hopefully the dance will go well...but then again, things never go to how Penelope and Seto plan them. Thanks for reading and please review. :)


	7. Dance The Night Away

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh, Barry Manilow's Coco Cabana (or any of his songs) nor do I own the lyrics to Take Me Away from Freaky Friday.

* * *

**Chapter Seven: Dance The Night Away**

"Hey, are you guys almost ready or what?" Tristan said through the door.

"Almost ready," Tea said from the other side. The dance was tonight and everyone was excited. It wasn't everyday that Kaiba decided to be generous and do something this nice. But everyone seriously doubted that he would show up at the dance.

On the contrary, he would be making an appearance tonight. Seto Kaiba did not dance…according to everyone else. No one knew that he had taken dance lessons for many years in Gozaburo's attempt to make him smarter and well-rounded so he could take over the company as a gentleman, not as naïve child. It was a well-kept secret that even Mokuba did know about. He finished adjusting the tie on his black tuxedo and left his suite to head upstairs.

Meanwhile Penelope was putting the finishing touches on her hair. Her long curly hair had been transformed into an elegant updo. Her hair was piled in her head with a rhinestone clip keeping her hair out of her face. Her usual dark makeup was replaced by a smoky plum eye and clear gloss, showing off her bright turquoise eyes. Her dress was a dark burgundy halter style that went down to her knees, and dipped low in back. Around her neck was a real diamond necklace, as well as several bracelets and a pair of earrings her parents had gotten her for her 16th birthday last year. Her silver shoes matched all her jewelry, and they were covered in real diamonds as well. She smiled at her reflection in the mirror, knowing that she looked just like a movie star.

Stephanie also looked beautiful, in her own eccentric way. She had on a one-strapped, knee length white dress covered in rainbow polka dots, sequins, and colorful feathers attached to the one-shoulder strap. Around her neck was a multicolored choker, and bright tie-dye shoes that even Rainbow Brite would be jealous of.

Tea's dress was long, sparkly and yellow. It was strapless with a slit going just above her knee. Her hair was kept down and she even wore silky ivory gloves and shoes that matched.

"Okay girls, let's knock 'em dead," Tea said opening the door. The three girls exited their suite, and saw that Yugi, Joey and Tristan were waiting for them. They were all dressed in black tuxedos, except that Yugi had his millennium puzzle around his neck. All three of them were nearly startled and star struck when they saw the girls come out of their suite.

"Whoa…you girls look amazing," Joey said dumbly, trying not to stumble over his words.

"Shall we?" Stephanie asked holding out her hand. Joey took it and they walked towards the dining room, with Yugi and Tea following closely behind, and Tristan and Penelope following them.

The dining room was decorated with gold napkins and plates, with crystal glasses and candles on each table. The gang decided to take a seat at a large table together that even had enough room for four more people.

"Hey Yugi! Yugi looked up and saw an old friend coming towards them.

"Hi Duke! I didn't know you were in the tournament," Yugi said. "I must have missed you this morning."

"Hey it's cool," he said sitting down. "So who are your new fine lady friends here?" Duke was clearly interested in Stephanie and Penelope.

"This is Penelope Fulton," Yugi said gesturing towards her. "She's the regional champion."

"Nice to meet you," Duke said gazing at her through his green eyes. "And I've heard a lot of good things about you too."

"I'm sure you have," Penelope said trying not to appear as if the situation had just became awkward. Frankly, she was a little weirded out by him. She could tell when a guy was interested in her.

"And this is Stephanie Larsen." Stephanie waved to him.

"My little brother is a huge fan of Dungeon Dice Monsters," she said trying to break the ice.

"Then he should come by to my shop sometime. And I think you should too. I've got all kinds of games," he said smirking at her.

About a minute or two later Ryou Bakura and Mai Valentine decided to sit down with them. Penelope was nearly floored when she met Mai, and at one point she caught herself rambling like an idiot when she was talking to her. There were very few female duelists in the world, so Penelope saw Mai as a huge inspiration. The group then went straight to the buffet, which was filled with many different varieties of Cajun food and so many seafood dishes that Joey would eat in three second. He ended up filling two plates full of food and planned to get more. As the gang sat down to eat, Penelope noticed that the young CEO was missing from the action.

"So where in the world is Kaiba anyway?" Mai asked.

"Who cares?" Joey said. "These crab legs are amazing!"

"Will you chew your food?" Tea said. "Do you have any idea how embarrassing that is?" Joey looked at her like she had two heads. But then again, he was the one with a super long crab leg sticking out of his mouth.

"Wherever he is, I'm just glad he isn't here. That guy is such an asshole," Penelope said bluntly.

"So I'm an asshole?"

'Shit,' was the first thing that came to Penelope's mind. Slowly she turned around and looked up to see Seto Kaiba standing over her.

She tried not to show any fear and got up from her chair, and glared back at him.

"Yeah, you are an asshole, considering you act like one on a daily basis."

"Well then, I wonder what that makes you," he said smirking. "I was going to say annoying, but with that dress of yours…" Kaiba leaned in closer to her and whispered, "I'm sure lots of guys would love to have you tonight."

"Are you implying something?" she said crossing her arms. She said it loud enough for everyone at her table to hear, and all of them glared up at Kaiba. He did notice, but he chose to ignore them.

"I was implying that you look sexy tonight," he whispered in her ear. Before Penelope could say anything else, Seto left the dining hall and headed back upstairs. Everyone was still pissed off at what he said to Penelope, but Stephanie had a look of confusion on her face.

"Who the hell was that?" she said out loud.

"You mean to tell me that you know who that was?" Mai asked.

"That's Seto Kaiba."

"Doesn't ring a bell," she said. Everyone sighed.

"Steph, he's the guy I told you about." Stephanie's eyes widened with surprise.

"Really? That's the guy? So is he like the guy who runs Kaiba Corp?"

"Well duh," Duke said. "He singlehandedly invented holographic duel monsters and the duel disk."

"Well sorry if I don't keep up with the games like you guys do," she said crossing her arms.

"It's okay Stephanie, we forgive you," Joey said patting her shoulder.

"So what did Kaiba say to you anyway?" Yugi asked innocently.

Penelope did not want to share _any_ of what Kaiba said to her friends.

"He pretty much said I've got no chance of making it to the finals and that my dueling abilities are inferior to his."

"He said what?" Tristan said, his face turning red. "How dare he! I should go and kick his ass for you…uh, if you want me too."

"I'm right behind you," Joey said getting up from the table. But before he could, Stephanie and Mai pulled him back down. Bakura and Duke practically pushed Tristan back down onto his seat.

"Now, now, we know that violence is not the answer," Bakura said politely.

"Yeah guys, we shouldn't care what Kaiba says," Yugi said trying to lighten things up.

"Yugi's right," Tea said. "We should forget about him and try to have fun instead."

* * *

Seto watched from a balcony above as everyone else finished dinner and the music came on. A band came on and played some dance music, but a lot of people didn't seem to like it.

'I could see why,' he thought. Most of the music was from ten or even twenty years ago. He also noticed that a lot of the duelists wouldn't dance with the opposite gender. The girls were on one side, boys on the other.

'I should've known that this wouldn't be a good idea,' he thought. 'Now there's no way I'll get to dance with Penelope.'

Down on the dance floor Penelope and Stephanie were glowering along with everyone else in the room. Coco Cabana was playing and no one was interested in dancing to it.

"Ugh," Tea said. "This music is so lame," she said.

"We've got to do something," Penelope said to her best friend.

"Yeah…but you know I can't do it with all of these people watching."

"What are you two talking about?" Tea asked. Penelope looked over at her and smiled.

"Well back in the day, Stephanie used to play a mean guitar solo."

"Not anymore," she said. "I played at the talent show and I got so choked up I couldn't finish the song."

"Well you don't need to worry. You've got all of us to help you out." Stephanie appeared even more nervous, as if she would throw up at any given moment. She wanted to faint knowing that she would be playing in front of Joey.

"Come on Steph, do it," Penelope said.

Her best friend looked very reluctant, and finally shut her eyes.

"I'll do it."

The girls left the room and reappeared backstage through a secret passage that Penelope showed them.

"Okay girls, here's the plan: We rush the stage, kick that lame band my parents like off the stage and we play our song."

"But we don't have a drummer," Stephanie said. "We're going to suck without one."

"Maybe I can help?" The scent of cigarettes over took the room, and Penelope's brother Chris came out, smoking a cigarette.

"Chris? What the hell? I thought you quit smoking!"

"Hey, now is not the time to bash me. Mom and dad's music sucks and we need to do something about it."

"He's right," Stephanie said. "Even though your brother is a little um…_different_, we need to get up there."

"Yeah, I don't think I could stand hearing _another_ Barry Manilow song," Tea said sighing.

"Let's pull the plug on that guy's mic," Chris said pointing to an amplifier and soundboard.

"Sure." Stephanie ripped the microphone chord from the soundboard, completely interrupting the singer in the middle of an old 80's pop song.

All the duelists looked up and started chattering, wondering what happened.

"Sorry folks, it looks like were having some technical difficulties," the singer said taking the guitar player's mic. He started rambling nervously as Penelope and her friends took the instruments from the band, and Tea kindly escorted the singer off the stage.

"Don't worry boys, we'll take it from here," Tea said. The microphone was plugged back in and Tea took it off the stand. "Hey duelists, are you guys ready to rock?"

"Yeah!" Joey and Tristan shouted. The other duelists quietly clapped, not exactly sure what was about to happen. Chris tapped out the beat, and Stephanie began to play her guitar and Penelope got the song started on bass. Then Tea began to sing.

_Yeah, Yeah_

_Get up, Get out Move on, move on there's no doubt_

_I'm all wrong, you're right_

_It's all the same with you_

_I'm too thin, too fat _

_You ask why _

_So why, So why, So why, So why _

_On and on, And on and on, On and on, _

_And on and on,_

_Don't want to grow up_

_I want to get out_

_Hey, take me away_

_I want to shout out_

_Take me away, _

_Away, Away, Away, Away,_

_Round and round here we go again_

_Same old start, same old end_

_Turn my head And turn back again Same old stuff never ends_

_Do this, do that Can't deal Can't deal with that_

_I tune in, tune out_

_I've heard it all before_

_Hello, goodbye_

_Never asking me why,_

_Goodbye, Goodbye, Goodbye, _

_On and on, And on and on,_

_On and on, And on and on,_

_Don't want to grow up_

_I want to get out_

_Hey, take me away_

_I want to shout out_

_Take me away, _

_Away, Away, Away,Away,_

_Round and round here we go again_

_Same old story, same old end_

_Turn my head And turn back again _

_Same old stuff never ends_

Stephanie jumped in front of Tea and starting playing a guitar solo, and as Penelope looked up she saw Seto Kaiba watching from above, wearing an expression that was a cross between egotistical…and surprised. When the song was over, Kaiba disappeared and Penelope and her friends took a bow. The entire room was cheering and wanted more.

"I guess this dance isn't so lame after all," Penelope said to Stephanie.

"Told ya," Stephanie said with a smirk.

* * *

Sorry for the long break, student teaching has been hectic and I've been getting close to taking over the classroom.

Thank you for reading, and please review. :)


	8. I Want You to Want Me

**Chapter Eight: I Want You to Want Me**

So far, Penelope was rather pleased with herself as she stepped off the stage to join her friends on the dance floor. The previous band had a drummer who was also a DJ, and soon everyone was out on the dance floor having a good time. Who knew that all they needed was a good song to get them going? Seto was pleased as well, especially when he saw Penelope and her friends playing for the duelists. Who knew she had so much talent?

She was a top duelist, smart, a former athlete, and she plays bass guitar? What more could a guy ask for?

Despite the barrier and hostility that she put up against him, he found her…interesting.

'Now that I've seen her do something unexpected, now is the time for me to do the same.'

Seto carefully made his way down the grand staircase, occasionally having to dodge other people (or rather, people having to dodge him). He saw Penelope out on the floor below slow dancing with Tristan, who was her date for the night.

'He's no threat to me at all. He's not even on my level.' Kaiba made his way to the dance floor, pushing through the thick crowd of duelists.

Suddenly a fast song came on and the crowd dispersed, making it even harder for him to get to Penelope. Everyone was jumping up and down to the beat like animals. At one point a girl almost fell into him, nearly knocking him into a line of people making a train.

Penelope left her friends just for a moment to get a drink of punch. It was cherry flavored, but there was another taste that she wasn't used to. It tasted acidy, but it warmed her chest.

Somebody had spiked the punch, but she didn't know that. All she knew was that something wasn't right about it. She decided not to have anymore and went out into the middle of the floor and stopped when she saw Seto standing in front of her.

"What the hell are you doing here?" she said crossing her arms.

"I can't enjoy the festivities as well?" he asked her. His icy blue eyes bore into her turquoise ones, and he smirked at Penelope. Then without warning, Seto grabbed her and pulled her close to him. His feet began moving, and she began moving hers in an attempt to keep up with him.

'Wow, I didn't know he was so light on his feet,' she thought. Penelope never suspected that Kaiba knew how to dance. He twirled her around him, and they moved in time to the music, adding in some intricate footwork. All those years of cheerleading hell finally paid off for Penelope when she was able to point her leg straight up in the air parallel to her body.

"I have to say, I didn't know you could dance like this," Penelope said looking up at him.

"Well I didn't think someone like you could actually keep up," he said pulling her into a dip. She arched her back and came up slowly, nearly pressing her body against his just to get him going.

The song ended at that moment and the entire room was cheering. Penelope and Seto looked around and finally realized that everyone had been watching them dance the entire time.

"You go girl!" Tea said cheering.

"That was amazing!" Duke said clapping.

Seto looked down at Penelope and smirked.

"Well, it looks like you're the life of the party," he said. "I just hope you'll be able to keep this going tomorrow in the tournament."

"Oh don't worry, I'll definitely give you a run for your money," she said getting quite cocky. Despite the fact they disliked each other, the two duelists shared very much in common. Another song came on and everyone went back to dancing while Stephanie watched her friend from afar. Even though Joey and the others were completely clueless, Stephanie could tell that Seto Kaiba had a thing for her best friend. Whenever he was around her he would put his guard up and try to outdo Penelope, sometimes trying to impress her. Stephanie knew that Seto's huge ego and cockiness would definitely turn her off--but she was just as cocky and headstrong as he was.

'They would definitely make an interesting couple,' she thought.

"Yo Steph, what are you looking at?" Joey asked her trying to figure out her thoughts.

"Not much. I'm just thinking about how cute Seto and Penelope look together."

"WHAT? You can't be serious!" he said freaking out. "Those two are like ticking time bombs when they're together. They don't even have a snowball's chance of getting along like us."

Stephanie raised an eyebrow and looked up at him and smiled mischievously.

"Joey, are you trying to say that _we're_ cute together?" Joey's face slowly begun to blush as red as a tomato.

"N-no…I mean…um…well…Yes! Iwantyoutogooutwithme!"

"Um, can you say that slower," Stephanie said in a flirty voice.

"Will you go out with m-me?" Joey asked trying not to stutter. Stephanie smiled and kissed him on the cheek.

"Of course I'll go out with you. I kind of have a thing for blondes," she said winking at him.

"Yeah, kind of how I have a thing for girls with um…green…uh…funky hair," he said attempting to finish his sentence. Joey wasn't exactly sure what Stephanie's natural hair color was due to all the red, blue-green and black pieces she had in her hair.

"My hair is naturally teal," she said laughing as they continued to dance together.

* * *

"Well you know what? I don't give a damn!" Seto said crossing his arms. Penelope glared back up at him.

Seto tried to have a normal conversation with her about her family's boat, saying they were lucky he gave them money or they would surely be doomed. These days it was hard for American businesses to do well in an economy like Japan's--where they had been on a plateau for three decades. This set Penelope off and she argued back saying it's because of the endangered crab species--not the economy and that they could very well survive on their own without him. Then Seto rolled his eyes, pissing her off more, she called him egotistical, said he was a jackass and that if people saw his true colors that he would loose his respect as a person in general.

"Well maybe you should. Because you are such an ass!"

"And what does that make you?" he said. Penelope's blood began to boil. "Oh wait. I know. That makes you a headstrong bitch who doesn't know enough to keep her mouth shut."

That was when Penelope lost it.

She slapped him across the face.

Hard.

"How dare you! I can't believe you insulted me like that!" Penelope stormed out of the crowded room, with all eyes on her and Seto.

Seto stood there holding his hand against his reddened cheek. Without thinking he ran out of the room after her--everyone still watching his everyone move, as if they were a part of a soap opera.

He ran after down the hall, past a couple duelists and upstairs towards the deck of the riverboat.

"Come back here!" he said trying to catch up to her. 'Damn. She's fast.' Penelope may have not done single cheerleading routine in a year, but she was still in shape, probably more than Seto was.

Penelope made it to the bow of the boat and turned around to see that Seto finally caught up to her. All she wanted was to be alone and away from him, but he wouldn't go away.

"I have to talk to you," he said standing a good distance from her.

"After how you insulted me?"

"Just listen, I--"

"Why don't you just leave me alone?"

Seto stared at her and looked down towards the polished wooden deck.

"I'm sorry," he said. "Things clearly got out of hand. I spent so much time trying to prove that I was the best that I got caught up in doing only that."

"You should be sorry," she said. Penelope paused and looked out down the river. "I thought that when I began dueling I would gain some respect for a change. But I guess it hasn't changed."

Seto slowly approached her until he was standing close behind her. "When I was a cheerleader, nobody took me seriously. They just thought I was another airhead girl who can do back flips. I chose to become a duelist because it what makes me happy. And I don't need someone like you getting in the way of my happiness." Seto was surprised that Penelope actually opened up and let her guard down for that one second.

"I'm not here to ruin your happiness," he said placing his hand on her shoulder. Penelope froze and felt shivers up her spine from his touch. His hand was nice and warm against her bare shoulder and strangely enough, she liked it. Slowly, Seto turned her around and they looked into each others eyes deeply (without hate) for the first time.

Then without thinking, Seto grabbed her and kissed her passionately on the lips. She was taken aback by his sudden move and didn't know whether to enjoy it or push him away. She chose the latter…and slapped him again.

"What was that for?" he said.

"If you think you can kiss me whenever you want, then you have another thing coming."

"Do I need your permission or something?" he said trying not to snap at her.

"No. I just don't want to kiss you."

"And why not?"

"Because…" Penelope walked away and towards the door and then turned around to face him. "You're an ass." She headed down back below the deck, leaving Seto completely dumbfounded for a change.

He was happy he got to kiss her, but at the same time he was royally pissed at her for slapping him across the face. Although she had every right to do that…at least, she thought so. Her family believed that a woman can't be made to do anything without her permission--that included kissing a man. Her brothers were brought up to be gentlemen (if anyone could call them that) and let the girl take the lead. It was how their family had always been.

* * *

Penelope went back to her room and laid down on her bed, staring up at the ceiling. The evening was definitely eventful, but not how she imagined it to be. She never imagined Seto Kaiba would come along and ruin her fun.

'But that kiss…' No matter how hard she tried, she just couldn't get that moment off her mind.

* * *

Seto was now back in his suite, sitting on the couch by himself. He was still in shock over being slapped in the face (twice) by a girl he admired. Perhaps he needed to try a different approach. Being mean or forcing her to kiss him was not going to work. It was obvious that she came from a family where women were highly respected, and he finally learned that the hard way. If he ever wanted to get involved with her, she would be the one to wear the pants, not him. Seto sighed and stared at the wall.

Another thing on his mind was bothering him…the business deal he made with her parents. He agreed to save their company if they agreed to marry off one of their daughters to him. Seto hoped that he could win Penelope over so they would give her to him. He could care less about Natalie. The girl was beautiful, but not his type. She may have been protective of her twin sister, but she also seemed rather self-centered and more like the fan-girls that try to follow him everywhere he goes. Penelope was not like that because she could actually think for herself.

'I just wished that she didn't hang out with those nerds. Then she would be perfect…almost…'

This would be a long ordeal indeed.

* * *

Well, I finally updated. I've been very busy with school so I don't know how often I'll be updated, but chapter nine is done and ten is in progress. I want to try and bring a new guy into the story (maybe someone like Marik, Zigfried or Pegasus?) so Kaiba will have some serious competition. I'm also working on trying to get more of Penelope's siblings into the story. Ned is a player-pimping tool and he will add a lot of comic relief to the story when he finds out Seto is after his sister.

I'm also thinking of raising the rating of this story to M if I decided to add dramatic fights (and lemons). I'll keep you guys posted.

Thank you for reading and don't forget to review :)


	9. Reasons Why

**Chapter Nine: Reasons Why**

It was the second day of the tournament and Seto Kaiba had already secured himself a spot in tomorrow's finals. The day itself was very rigorous and tiring, with only 32 duelists and all of them being top-notch. It proved to be challenging for Penelope to keep up with many of them who had been dueling for years. She had only been dueling for barely a year.

Right now Joey was in the middle of a duel, playing against Penelope's brother, Chris. And Chris was winning.

Joey had his Swordsman of Lanstar and his Rocket Warrior out on the field, and they were currently being overpowered by a giant monster that looked like a pot plant.

But then again, Chris smokes pot so nobody was surprised. Seto Kaiba and Mokuba watched from the top deck. Seto hoped that the mutt wouldn't win…he was just an amateur that was really lucky to even be in Kaiba's tournament.

"Well Mokuba, it looks like Wheeler is going to loose to a kid who has a deck full of plant monsters and naked girls. I've got other things to do, so tell me who wins," he said walking away.

"You're leaving? But why?"

"I have a tournament to run, remember?" Mokuba nodded.

"Alright Seto. I'll tell you who wins after this." Seto nodded back and went back down below to the lower deck--almost tempted to stop and stare at how hot Penelope was today. Today she was wearing a simple long sleeved black shirt, a short plaid mini skirt that was tan with black and red lines. She had black and gold chains over her skirt and her shoes were bright red high heels. Her makeup was dark, but not as dark as it was yesterday. Natalie told her to go easy on the makeup so it wouldn't overpower her outfit.

'Most girls wouldn't be allowed out of the house if they wore that,' he thought to himself. She was showing off a lot of leg today, and Seto seemed to like it.

"What the hell are you looking at?" she said putting her hands on her hips.

"Nothing," he said. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have better things to do than watch Wheeler loose to a pot plant."

Penelope rolled her eyes and went back to watching Joey duel her younger brother. But every now and then her thoughts went to Seto and how he kissed her last night.

Even though she slapped him across the face, sometimes she wondered what would've happened if she let her heart lead the way.

'I probably would've slept with him,' she thought. 'Just like I did with my last boyfriend.'

During her time as a cheerleader in high school, Penelope used to go to parties and spend a lot of time with her sister and the squad.

That was how she met her first boyfriend. He was on the soccer team and he pretty much sucked her in and told her he would never hurt her and they would be together forever…and she bought it--hook, line and sinker. Last winter she gave him her virginity and he ended up breaking up with her two weeks later. Apparently she wasn't good enough and he had been seeing another girl the entire time!

After breaking up with her first boyfriend, Penelope decided she would never let that happen again, so she started rebelling and finding ways to keep guys away from her. That included playing duel monsters, getting her eyebrow pierced and changing the way she dressed.

'And people wonder why I don't trust guys,' she thought. Seto was the only one who didn't heed any of her warning signals. He found them inviting.

Penelope began thinking more and more about last night and was starting to wonder if she should give him a chance. Sure he was a jerk to a lot of people, but that was probably a front for who he really was inside. She came to learn from the kiss that maybe Seto Kaiba does have a heart.

"Time Wizard, go!" Joey said playing one of his favorite cards. Time Wizard aged all of Chris's monsters, making all the female monsters really old and saggy, and causing all of his plant type monsters to whither, cutting their attack power in half. Joey then proceeded by attacking all of his monsters and winning the duel.

"Yes! I won! I won!" Joey said doing a victory dance.

"Great job Joey!" Yugi said running over to him.

"Hey thanks, Yugi." Then Joey turned to Chris. "It was fun dueling you. You did well too."

"Thanks, bro," Chris said. "I had fun too." The two teens shook hands and Chris went back below deck to most likely pack his things. They would be dropping off all the loosing duelists at the next town in a few hours, leaving the remaining finalists to battle it out tomorrow.

* * *

Penelope dueled later in the day, defeating one of the few girls that was actually on board the boat. Her dragon came in handy once again and that evening she proved to be in a very good mood.

Tonight everyone had the night off and most of the duelists went back to their rooms to plan out their strategies for tomorrow, or socialize with their friends. Seto saw that as an advantage to see a certain orchid-haired girl.

He visited the dining room for a few minutes, but disappointed when he saw that she wasn't there. He checked upstairs and eventually found her on deck like last night. The sun was just starting to set and she was alone at the front of the ship watching the sun. Her long hair was blowing in the breeze, and Seto wanted nothing more than to reach out and touch it. He hoped that all those small spiral curls would be soft and not rough (or fake) like so many other girls he had seen.

Penelope's eyes were closed and she was so focused on the feeling of the wind that she didn't even listen to the soft footsteps that were coming up behind her.

She opened her eyes and without thinking she turned around and was very surprised to see Seto standing behind her.

"What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be plotting your victory tomorrow like everyone else?"

"Has it occurred to you that maybe I have better things to do than sit in my room and shuffle my cards all night?"

Penelope scoffed at him and leaned forward against the railing of the deck.

"Well, when I beat you tomorrow, then you'll be wishing you would've done that."

"I don't see you preparing for tomorrow," Seto said crossing his arms and trying to intimidate her.

"It's called relaxing. It's pretty hard to relax when you have room mates."

Right now Tea had her favorite Michael Jackson songs blaring, and the two girls were bouncing around the room in t-shirts and underwear, singing into their hairbrushes. Penelope wouldn't join even if they paid her. So she came up to the deck to get some peace and quiet…except that Kaiba had just ruined it. She looked up into his eyes, and it was clear he wanted something. But what? As smart and perceptive as Penelope was, she had a difficult time reading Seto.

"I see," he said. For a while the two stood in silence, not even so much as staring each other down.

"So why did you come up here anyway?" Penelope asked him.

"I…I came to apologize for yesterday…and I was hoping we could try this again."

Penelope was taken aback at his comment.

'Is Seto Kaiba…apologizing? I was pretty sure he didn't do that.'

"So you're apologizing?" she asked him.

"Yes. I am." Seto paused and then took a breath. "I don't know how to say this…but I can't stop thinking about you."

"Me? Are you for real?" she asked him. Penelope was quite surprised that Seto (or anyone) would ever say that to her. "So do you like me?"

Seto appeared calm on the outside, but on the inside he was freaking out. It was going to be very hard to admit that he actually cared about someone else besides his younger brother.

"Yes," he said softly. "I know I haven't been that nice to you when we first met, but I want to try and change that. I want us to try this again."

Penelope and Seto stared at each other--not in awkward silence, but a sense of understanding. Sure, there were still a lot of walls they put up to keep others out, but they were beginning to break down. Their faces had little distance between them and the gap was slowly closing. Seto was hoping he would dominate her and make the first move, but her lips captured his instead, pulling him into a heated, passionate kiss.

His hands moved down to her hips and pressed her against his body, taking in how wonderful she smelled and how perfect their bodies fit together. Their kisses became hungrier each second, both of them now realizing the sexual tension that existed between them. Seto wanted nothing more than to bring her to his room, tear her clothes off and make her his. His hands moved up from her hips and underneath the sides of her shirt, touching her soft bare skin underneath. She didn't protest as his lips came in contact with the crook of her neck, sending chills down her spine and getting a good moan out of her.

"Seto…please…" she whispered in his ear. "Stop. I don't want anyone to see us."

Seto pulled away from her, not surprised she wanted to stop.

"Is something wrong?" he asked her. Penelope pulled away from him, taking a few steps back from what had just happened. "Do you not like me?" She hesitated and shook her head.

"No…it's not that at all. It's just…it's me. I don't want to talk about it right now."

Seto looked at her and then focused his eyes on the wide river that was ahead.

"Well then, I suppose I should go. Too bad…I was hoping we would get a chance to talk."

"We both know that's just an excuse to get me to sleep with you," Penelope said as she neatened out her clothes.

"Why would you say that?" he asked her. "Do you think I would do that?"

"Every guy I have dated has tried. And I doubt you're any different."

Seto went over to her and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"In case you haven't noticed, I'm not like those other guys. And for the record, every girl I've has tried the same tactic on me, but none of them have succeeded."

"That's because no one wants to date a guy who has a stick shoved up their ass," she said taking his hand off her shoulder.

Seto stepped back, not surprised she would do or say that. In fact, he was starting to get used to her smart remarks…no…he actually liked her feisty attitude. He stood behind her and placed his hands on her hips, pulling her body close to his.

"I don't want anyone…except for you."

Seto's lips were so close to her ear when he said that. The worst part was that Penelope was enjoying this…a lot. Right now she wanted nothing more than to have him kissing her. She turned around and ran her fingers through his silky brown hair, taking in those sapphire blue eyes that she was hypnotized by. Seto leaned in closer, so his lips were just an inch from hers and--

"Hey Penelope! Where are you?" Penelope and Seto both opened their eyes and took a few steps away from each other as soon as they saw Stephanie and Tea running towards them.

"There you are!" Tea said. "Steph and I were wondering where you had run off too."

"Nothing really, I was just leaving."

"Same here. I try to have an intelligent conversation, but it's obvious you can't even do that," Seto said crossing his arms and scowling at Penelope.

"Whatever. Why don't you go socialize with a cactus? You both have the same social capabilities," Penelope said trying to egg him on. Seto left and went back to his room.

"So I'm guessing you two were at it again?" Tea asked. "Did he insult you?"

"I don't really care," Penelope said. "I've heard better insults from a five year-old. Now, I think I'm going to go and figure out my strategy for tomorrow," she said.

"No problem," Stephanie said. "We'll give you some piece and quiet. Tea and I are going to take a walk while you do that."

Penelope nodded and went back down below to her room.

"Hey Tea?"

"What?"

"Wasn't it obvious what they were really doing?" she asked.

"It was totally obvious when I saw the purple lipstick all around Kaiba's mouth!" Both of them squealed and laughed with delight, and continued walking around the deck. Little did they know that someone was not only listening to their conversation, but had seen Seto and Penelope's makeout session.

And he certainly was not happy about it…not happy at all…

* * *

Hope you liked the chapter. I'm sorry if the updates have been slow. I've been really busy student teaching and have almost no time to write anymore. From chapter 10 and on, the story will be rated M due to a scene on a dining room table with two of your favorite main characters.

Please review! :)


	10. Taken

**Chapter Ten: Taken**

The final round of the tournament was getting underway, and Penelope was ready to win. She wore an all black outfit of black leggings, black tunic and a leather jacket with spikes on the shoulders. Her favorite pair of combat boots were on her feet, and her makeup was darker than ever. She was a huge contrast to Seto Kaiba, who wore his white trench coat. She eyed him from across the room, and it was clear that he was interested her--he was eying her back as well, even sending her his signature smirk she was starting to like. He went to the top of the staircase and Rowland handed him the microphone.

"Alright duelists, listen up. The final tournament will start in a few minutes. Here are a few rules for you to remember…

"You will have five minutes to find your opponent. Once you do, the data from both players will be entered into the computer and the winner of the match will be matched up with a duelist who won their match. There will be eight of you dueling in round two. Only four will move on to the next round, and then the last two will duel at the end of the day at the docks back in Domino City. And if you have any questions, you'd better keep them to yourself unless they're related to this tournament."

A couple of duelists asked a few stupid questions that Seto immediately dismissed. Joey asked what the prize was, but Seto wouldn't give that away either.

'I hope it's at least a title and a trophy,' Penelope thought 'I have plenty of room in my room for a couple…'

"And now, the tournament begins…" Seto exclaimed. All the remaining duelists began scouring the room for a suitable opponent. Penelope looked around and began thinking about her options.

'I don't think dueling Yugi or Joey would be wise. If I lost I wouldn't be able to duel against Seto. Then there's Duke…I don't think I want to duel him…or Bakura. Then there's a couple kids, but that's just mean.'

"Hey hon," Mai Valentine approached her and flipped her long golden wavy hair over her shoulders. "How about you and I duel woman to woman?"

"You want a duel? You've got it," Penelope said handing her deck over to Mai. They shuffled each other's decks and put their own decks into their duel disks. Seto watched with interest as he began his duel against a young naïve teenage boy who thought he could take on Kaiba.

Mai and Penelope started dueling. Penelope had a slight lead at first, but soon Mai began playing her Harpie Ladies, as well as a card that made male monsters in defense mode switch into attack mode. Yugi and Joey were both familiar with this technique, but Penelope was not. She had a tough time getting past Mai's defenses until she drew a female monster that negated the effects of Mai's spell cards. Next she drew her green eyes, silver dragon and defeated Mai quickly after that.

"Well hon, I have to say you put up a pretty good fight. Now, go out there and show those boys that us girls can duel with the best of them." Penelope smiled, not wanting to say that Mai's comment was about as corny as corn on the cob.

Round two was even more rigorous and difficult, with Penelope dueling against a young teenage boy who was probably around Chris's age. He managed to cut her life points down to 300 until she drew a couple good cards that brought back 1000 life points, a couple good monsters with special effects that destroyed his trap cards, and Mind on Air sealed her victory by destroying his remaining monster--which happened to be Zombie Warrior.

But it was in round three that things really became interesting when Penelope had to duel against Seto. She was hoping to take him on the finals, but unfortunately things were not going according to her initial plan. Seto had taken out more than half her life points while his were still safe, and worse, he was acting like a complete pompous ass the entire time.

Penelope drew another card, and once again it was not the card she was looking for. It was mirror force.

'I suppose I could use it anyway to protect myself from his Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon,' she thought. Seto's dragon could easily take out her Mind on Air in one move, as well as the rest of her life points.

"I place one card face down and end my turn," she said. Seto scoffed at her.

"What a mediocre move. But I suppose your luck must've finally run out." Seto played Mystical Space Typhoon and destroyed her trap card. "I had a feeling that was a trap card you played. Now, I can make my last move. Blue-eyes Ultimate Dragon, attack her Mind on Air!"

Penelope cringed and closed her eyes as she felt the impact of all her remaining life points being taken away in one blow by his dragon.

"And the winner is…Seto Kaiba!" Rowland announced. Penelope sighed as a smug expression appeared upon Seto's face. He was gloating, there no doubt about it. As she walked away from the match, she thought she saw his eyes soften a bit when he looked at her. But right when she noticed, they hardened once again. Her friends came over and gave her applause and cheered for her, despite her loss.

"You really did a great job out there," Yugi said.

"It's okay Penelope, I lost too," Joey said. "But look on the bright side, now we can watch Yugi take down rich-boy over there."

"I can't wait for that," Tristan said nudging Yugi in the shoulder with his elbow.

"Ow," Yugi said. "I kind of need this arm to duel Kaiba." Tristan chuckled and the gang went up to the deck. Soon the boat would be landing back in Domino City harbor for the final duel of the tournament.

Of course, Penelope was not ready to head up yet. Now that the room cleared, only Seto remained in the room and waited for her. He strutted on over to her, immediately taking her in his arms and kissing her forehead.

"I was worried you were going to win," he said. "It's such a shame that you wouldn't be the one to crush Yugi." Penelope looked up at him, her turquoise eyes appearing almost innocent through all the heavy dark makeup.

"I wish you good luck then. You are definitely going to need it." She leaned in to kiss him, but he turned his head away.

"Please, I don't need luck." Seto turned his head to face Penelope and brought her into a deep passionate kiss. She loved how soft his lips felt against hers, and the feeling of having his hands all over her.

He lifted her off the ground and her legs wrapped around his waist, all while their kisses became very hot and steamy. Penelope felt her back come in contact with a table and pushed all the glasses, plates and silverware aside with her arms, still keeping her focus on Seto. He moaned into the kiss as he thrust his hips against hers, feeling himself become hard with anticipation. She could feel him against her and thrust back and took her lips off his. She let out a soft moan that got Seto very hot and bothered so much that he started taking her jacket off while she slid his trench coat off his shoulders and let it fall to the floor.

"Well, well. What do we have here?" Seto and Penelope stopped and turned to the source of the third voice in the room. They quickly got off the table and put their jackets back on the moment the person entered the room.

'Shit,' Penelope thought. She was in the middle of getting busy with Kaiba and now some idiot had to interrupt them and ruin their moment.

"Bakura? What the hell are you doing here?"

"I came to watch the tournament, but I didn't know that there would be an exhibition match afterwards," he said obviously referring to Penelope and Seto's dining room table escapade. It was very strange. She suspected Bakura to be a meek and quiet sort of person, but he was in no way that person right now. He looked very different

"Why don't you go back with the other geeks where you belong? Don't you have something else to do?"

"Actually I am here for something quite valuable. You may know them as the millennium items."

"Look, I don't have the millennium items, and I never even heard of them. Why don't you go and bother someone who _does_ believe in that hocus pocus nonsense?"

Bakura looked at Seto with a twisted smile and then his eyes moved to Penelope. She was just glad she was still clothed at this point even though Bakura was undressing her with his eyes.

"And you must be Princess Aphrodite of Sparta," he said narrowing his eyes at her. "Well, no, you aren't. But I must say the resemblance is striking."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Seto said standing protectively in front of Penelope.

"I mean that your girlfriend was betrothed to the pharaoh. But since your pharaoh friend does not remember, I wouldn't mind taking her off your hands for a while." Penelope and Seto looked at each other, and she glared at him.

"I am not going with you or anyone else anytime soon. Now why don't you get the hell out of here and leave us alone?"

Bakura smirked and held up his millennium ring.

"I'm afraid I will not be taking "no" for an answer this time. You see, with the Princess under my control, I can use her to recover the rest of the millennium items." The millennium ring began to glow and eerie green color and Penelope's eyes rolled into the back of her head. She fainted and Seto caught her in his arms.

"What did you do to her?"

"Don't worry. She'll only be unconscious until I awaken her."

Seto looked down at Penelope with a sense of despair. She could very well sleep forever if he didn't hand her over…but then…if he did, she would be with that slime ball Bakura.

"If you don't hand over the girl now I will use the ring to disable your entire company's computer system, and even kill you."

Bakura snapped his fingers, and shadows came up from the floor, all of them surrounding Kaiba. He freaked out and held on tighter to Penelope.

"Give me the girl or I will send you to the shadow realm along with all the other spirits that are in this room."

The spirits began grabbing at Seto, and then they pried him apart from Penelope and Bakura took her in his arms…and vanished. The spirits disappeared as well, and Seto fell to his knees in defeat.

* * *

Well hope you liked it. Sorry the updates have been slow, I've been busy working and finishing up college. Please review :)

Thanks!


	11. You Fight Me

**Chapter Eleven: You Fight Me**

**

* * *

**

"Mr. Kaiba, the final round is about to begin, we must get off the boat!" Roland came to retrieve Seto and found him kneeling on the ground staring off into space.

"She's gone…I can't believe it…"

"Mr. Kaiba…is everything alright?" Seto snapped out of his trance and got up.

"Yes Roland. Everything is fine. Now, please lead me to Yugi Moto so I can crush him."

Roland appeared rather apprehensive, but he couldn't argue with his boss…otherwise he would be fired.

"Yes Mr. Kaiba. As you wish. Please follow me." He followed Roland off the riverboat and down the dock towards the harbor of Domino City where Yugi was waiting for him.

"Kaiba…are you ready to duel?" Seto sneered at him.

"Of course I'm ready, now…show me what you've got?"

* * *

Penelope woke up to find herself on the cold marble floor of a room that was very dimly lit by old candles. From what she could make out, it appeared to be some sort of palace. She slowly sat up and immediately noticed she was no longer wearing her regular clothes. Instead she was dressed in a long burgundy sparkling tunic, her wrists covered in gold bracelets, and metallic sandals were on her feet.

The door slowly opened, and Bakura entered the room with his millennium ring giving off an eerie green glow. As if on cue, the lights turned on showcasing that the room was an old temple covered in Egyptian hieroglyphics, gleaming a metallic gold. At the front of the room was a large gold coffin and Penelope stared at it in awe, as if she was somehow connected to it. On the front of it was a large eye, similar to the one on Yugi's puzzle as well as Bakura's ring.

"It's good to see that you're awake Aphrodite. There is much work that needs to be done."

"What are you talking about? And why the hell am I here dressed like this?"

"I brought you here so that I could recover the seven millennium items."

"And what will these items do?"

"That…is something you will find out later…but I will tell you that whomever wields the items will be all powerful. I wish to attain that power for myself and you're going to help me do it!"

He laughed wickedly and Penelope sat there confounded and a little freaked out by Bakura's dark side. She could've sworn that the kid was shy and a bit of a doormat-but then again, she was the new student at school. There was no way Penelope could learn everything about everyone within the first two weeks of being at Domino High School.

Bakura slowly made his way over to her, and she began inching away at the same speed to get away. There was no way she would _ever _help this creep.

"I will never help you!" she yelled.

"You will help me retrieve the millennium items," Bakura said with a devilish grin, "or I will use the Millennium ring to hurt everyone you care about."

He held it up teasingly and with the wave of his hand, the Millennium eye appeared in his hand. It just so happened to be the same golden eye that Penelope had seen Pegasus wear, except she didn't realize it was powerful at all. The eye projected a portal and showed Stephanie and Joey walking through the hallway holding hands. Suddenly Stephanie started coughing and collapsed onto the floor, loosing consciousness. Penelope screamed.

"Stephanie! No!" Suddenly the image disappeared and Bakura was still wearing his disturbing grin upon his face.

"Don't worry, nothing has happened to her. That is simply just one of the many possibilities-one of the many things I could do to your worthless friends and family if you don't obey my orders."

Penelope glared at him.

"You're a monster. A sick monster."

"That may be true, but I do have absolute power over you. Now. Find me my items with your visions!"

"My what?" Penelope did not understand what Bakura was demanding of her.

"I see. Your powers have not yet been recovered. Well then, I suppose I'll have to use the eye to bring back your memories."

Bakura lifted the eye high above his head, the gold metal somehow gleaming in the dim light of the room. Then a wave of vibrations overtook Penelope and suddenly…she remembered. Penelope was still herself, but now she could easily pinpoint the locations of the other five millennium items.

"Bakura…I have found the location of the first item."

"And which one is it?"

"The millennium scales."

"Perfect. That item is unguarded by anyone. It should be relatively easy to steal. Care to tell me where it is?"

Penelope closed her eyes and concentrated hard, seeking out the item with her mind.

"Yes…I see a cliff…and a river…and a bridge…" suddenly the images came together and made sense.

"It's under Domino Bridge!"

Bakura nodded evilly and smiled wickedly at those words. The item was located, now he just needed to control some fool to get it for him. The problem was he didn't have the millennium rod. Marik did. Luckily he was still in the country, but getting the rod from him would not be an easy task.

"We will need to retrieve the millennium rod before we go after the other items. It will make it much easier to manipulate others to do the work for us. I don't want you to get your hands dirty." He touched her shoulder and looked down upon her and smirked. She swatted him away immediately, creeped out by his sorry attempts at flirting with her.

"Don't. Touch. Me," she said through her teeth. To be honest, she wanted nothing to do with Bakura. Not only was she betraying all of her friends by doing this, but she was loosing faith in herself fast.

'I guess I'm going to have to figure my own way out of this one,' she thought. Penelope couldn't bear to tell her friends, especially Yugi. They were starting to become really good friends and she would have to betray him by eventually taking his millennium puzzle.

"You'll learn to like it," Bakura said not bothered by her rudeness. "For now I will release you, but while I go and search for the millennium rod, I am trusting you to retrieve the millennium scales for me."

Penelope was terrified now.

"And if you tell anyone about our little secret, I will not hesitate to hurt your precious friends." He laughed evilly and Penelope started to shake, almost to the verge of crying. Never before had anyone made her feel so helpless and scared, not even the cheerleaders were this horrible to her. Bakura was threatening to destroy her entire life if she didn't cooperate with him.

"I have no choice then. I will retrieve the millennium scales for you."

"Good girl. Now, run along to your little friends, and dare I say, your boyfriend."

Penelope flipped him off but he just laughed at her. He snapped his fingers and in an instant a portal appeared in front of her, leading her back to Domino City.

"But what about this ridiculous outfit I'm wearing?" she said looking down at her Greek style robe.

"Oh don't worry, you'll be back to your old self once you return to your world." Penelope climbed through the portal, hearing the words: 'Do not fail me.' being the last thing Bakura said right before the portal sucked her into the vortex and spat her out behind a pile of shipping crates.

"Ow. He could've at least given me a chance to catch my balance," she said groaning in pain from landing on her butt. She slowly got up and brushed herself off and set out to find her friends (and Kaiba) and act as if she never went missing.

It wasn't too long before she made it to the heart of the harbor where a huge area had been cleared off and Yugi and Kaiba were in the middle of their final duel. Both of them appeared calm as the crowd went wild for both duelists, but Penelope knew each of them were nervous and unsure of their next move. Well, maybe Yugi was, but Seto wouldn't show that sort of emotion. He was very confident in his ability as he summoned another monster and wiped out even more of Yugi's low amount of life points. Then across the plaza she saw Stephanie (holding hands with Joey) and all her other friends watching the duel. Tea and Tristan were cheering Yugi on, while Joey was booing Kaiba and Duke sat on one of the crates applauding every time a monster got destroyed.

"Penelope!" Stephanie waved over to her and she weaved through the people and finally made it over to where her friends were.

"Sorry I'm late. My parents called me and I got sucked into a long conversation with them," she said quickly covering up her lie.

"I was wondering where you were," Tea said. "Yugi was worried that you would miss seeing the match."

"I wouldn't miss it," she said with a smile. Her eyes went to Seto, who still appeared confident-border lining on cocky. His eyes met her with surprise-surprise to see her safe from Bakura and unharmed.

'I hope she didn't have to duel him,' he thought. 'Unless…she won.' Other thoughts went through his head, ones that involved Bakura touching her and making her extremely uncomfortable.

'No one is going to lay a hand on her as long as I'm around. I will make sure of that.'

When his thoughts returned to the duel, Yugi had taken down his Blue-eyes Ultimate Dragon, and Seto had lost the duel.

"Sorry Kaiba, looks like I win again."

Seto grumbled and grudgingly shook hands with Yugi, now realizing that for the first time in years-he lost focus. All because of her. His eyes went back to Penelope and she was coming towards him, a small smile on her face. She appeared unharmed-much to his surprise, and went to Yugi to congratulate him first. Just then Mokuba ran over to Seto to give him a hug and tell him what a great job he did (even though he lost to Yugi again).

"Hey big brother! Even though you didn't win you still did awesome."

"Don't worry Mokuba. I'll just crush Yugi Moto again some other time." Mokuba smiled and then looked over at Penelope.

"Do you like her?" he asked him. Seto was taken aback by his comment, and rather surprised to hear that come from his younger brother.

"I want nothing to do with her."

"Then if you want nothing to do with her, then how come you kept looking at her during the duel? It was like you were in love with her or something."

"I am not interested in her. As far as things go, we are not even friends."

"Whatever you say Seto," Mokuba said sighing. "But just so you know, I like her. She's really nice and I think you should go out with her."

Seto rolled his eyes and walked out of the crowd and out of the harbor. Mokuba was going to run after him, but decided not to. Seto did like her-it was so obvious. He lost focus during the duel because of her. And not to mention that Mokuba saw them hooking up on the dining room table earlier today-but he wouldn't dare tell his brother that.

* * *

Meanwhile Penelope had overheard a good portion of the Kaiba's conversation to know that Seto wasn't going to admit his feelings to anyone.

_I am not interested in her. As far as things go, we are not even friends._

'He's got some nerve saying that…well if that how it's going to be, then I will make his whole day hell tomorrow at school.'

Even though she knew those words weren't true-they still hurt. She was falling for him hard and he won't admit that he's feeling the same way.

And to make matters worse, she had to get the millennium scales as soon as possible or else Bakura would hurt him and everyone else she loved.

'And I thought my life was complicated enough already…'

* * *

Sorry for a super long wait. My summer was extremely busy and I spent most of it working 40-50 hours a week. But enough of that, the next chapter will come much sooner (way less than six months). Thank you for reading. :)


	12. Storm of Regret

**Chapter Twelve: Storm of Regret**

After everyone cleared out from the harbor of Domino City, Penelope's friends headed out to Duke's game shop for an after party, but Penelope wanted to stay behind to see Seto.

She wanted so much to tell him the horrible things that Bakura was making her do, but with the threat of loosing him hanging in the air, she couldn't risk that. He made his way over to her and held her in his arms.

"Nice dueling out there," Penelope said. "I just wish you would've won."

"Hmph. Next time I'll crush Yugi," he said with his usual cockiness. Penelope sighed and brought him towards her and kissed him. It felt good to be back in his arms. Seto deepened the kiss and ran his fingers through her hair, leaving gentle kisses along her jaw line. For a moment they stared into each other's eyes and then Seto held her tighter against him. He was grateful to have her back unharmed (at least he was hoping so) and away from Bakura's evil clutches.

"Are you okay? I almost thought I lost you for good." Penelope looked up at him and smiled faintly, all the things he said to Mokuba rushing through her mind. He had told his brother she meant nothing to him and didn't want to be with her-but hopefully the two of them could sort these things out.

"Yeah," she said softly. Seto's eyes hardened and he tilted her chin so she was looking up into his sapphire eyes.

"Did he hurt you?" he asked her with worry in his expression.

"No. I had to duel against him to get away. But he said he'll be coming back to find me."

"He's not going to lay a finger on you as long as I'm around," he said with reassurance in his voice.

'If only you knew what you were up against,' she thought. But as far as it went, he believed her lie and hoped that she could find a way to get out of working for Bakura.

The two teens walked through the harbor together, the sky beginning to deepen to a dark blue. The area was quiet with the exception of a cars driving down the road nearby.

"So are you going to the party at Duke's game shop?" Penelope asked him.

"I wasn't planning on it. I don't want to sound harsh but I often feel like some of your friends probably wouldn't approve of us."

"So you don't want them to know yet?"

"Let's wait a little bit longer." Penelope sighed.

"I guess you're right. But I have to ask you something."

"Of course."

"Why did you tell Mokuba I meant nothing to you?" Seto was rather surprised she would say such a thing.

"Did I say that?"

"I overheard you two talking and when Mokuba asked if you liked me, you said you didn't want to have anything to do with me."

Seto sighed. Mokuba didn't need to know about every little detail that went on in his life, but he didn't think Penelope actually heard him say that. He didn't mean it that way.

"I never meant it like that."

"Really? Because I'm starting to think that you don't want to tell anyone about us because you don't want to admit that you like me?" Her tone was starting to get more abrasive by the second as the two teens began to argue.

"That I like you? You want me to tell people that I like you is that what this is about?"

"No," she argued back. "I'm just really pissed off that after all that time we spent together during the tournament that you want nothing to do with me!"

"You know it wasn't like that," he said. "I didn't mean to hurt you."

"Really? Well you did! I'm sorry Seto, but I don't think we should see each other for a while."

"Good. Then I don't have to deal with you," he said turning on his heel and walking away. Penelope went the other way, angry that he wouldn't admit that what he felt for her was real.

'I just hope he wasn't using me.' During the tournament they had gotten very close and if they had stayed together longer then it would only have been a short time before they would decided to have sex. It was possible that he could have been using her, but she didn't think so.

"Tonight I'm just going to forget about him and have fun."

* * *

Later that night Penelope met up with Stephanie at her house where they got dressed up for Duke's party. Stephanie had styled her hair into a cute bob and was wearing a neon blue t-shirt with a pair of sunglasses on it and a pair of acid washed jeans and neon colored sneakers that went above her ankles. Penelope put on another one of the outfits Natalie bought her-this one being a one shouldered dark green top with sequins on it and a pair of black shorts that showed a lot of leg. On her feet she wore her black sneakers instead of the high heels her sister suggested. She would feel way to out of place if she put on a pair of shoes that looked like something a stripper would wear.

Tonight her hair was down but instead of being curly it was styled into soft beautiful waves.

"Wow, you look like one of the Kardashians," Stephanie said commenting on Penelope's look.

"Ugh. My sister watches that show. You know I don't watch TV."

"Sorry. I was just saying that you looked pretty. In fact, you look way prettier than they do."

Penelope smiled and the two girls headed out of Stephanie's house and into the front yard where Tristan was waiting to pick them up in his mom's van.

* * *

"One part gin, vodka, tequila, white rum, cointreau, some lemon juice, and a little bit of cola. There. That's how you make Long Island Iced Tea," Mai said helping Duke pour the bottles of alcohol into the punch bowl.

"Thanks for buying the alcohol, Mai," Duke said taking the empty bottles and putting them in a trash bag. "No problem, hon. It always pays to have a fake ID," she said with a wink. The infamous Duke Devlin was famous not only for creating Dungeon Dice Monsters, but for throwing the craziest parties-all while his parents are out of town. When Duke wasn't running a game shop he was the DJ at the school dances and even went to a few college frat parties to DJ there as well.

The shelves were moved out of the way to make room for dancing, the tables were covered in food and refreshments, including the "iced tea" that Mai made. There was a booth where Duke's equipment was set up, and there was a disco ball and flashing lights set up around the room.

"So what do you have for tunes?" Mai asked him.

"Let's see, I've got some pop for the ladies, some rock for the guys, and for Serenity-I've got Taylor Swift."

"Still trying to get with Serenity?" Mai said sighing.

"Yeah, why?"

"I'm sorry Duke, but she's just too nice. She's a good girl and she deserves a nice guy."

"I am a nice guy!"

"Preferably someone who hasn't slept with half the girls at school," Mai said making her point even more valid.

"Whatever. I think everyone's coming in now. Time to work my magic," he said leaving the booth and heading outside to greet nearly half the school. Within twenty minutes everyone was already starting mingle, Duke was playing some easy listening and Joey and Tristan were trying the iced tea.

"Hey Steph, you should try this stuff it's really good," Joey said handing her his cup.

"Sure." She took a sip. "Whoa. This is really good. What is this stuff anyway?"

"I think it's iced tea, but I 'aint never tasted no iced tea like this."

"Joey there's alcohol in that!" Tea said alarmed by his stupidity. "You need to be careful or you're going to get sick."

"Aw, chill out Tea. Why don't you have some too?"

"No thanks," she said. "I didn't come here to get drunk off my ass tonight. Besides, we have school on Tuesday. I need to finish my homework tomorrow."

"Tea is right Joey," Yugi said. "Don't have too many of those."

"Don't worry Yugi, I'll keep an eye on him," Tristan said patting Joey on the back.

"Hey Penelope, did you want some?" Stephanie asked her. The cup was held out to her, and Penelope hesitated for a moment.

Then Seto's face flashed in her mind.

_Don't do that. You'll regret it. _

Penelope ignored his voice in her head and took the cup and chugged the rest of it. Everyone around her cheered and then a loud pulsing beat began to play and she went out to the dance floor and Stephanie quickly followed her out.

"Well, let's go!" Tea said grabbing Yugi and running out towards the dance floor.

"Yes! Let's jerk!" Joey shouted taking Tristan with him and jerking (badly). With all of the excitement going on, Penelope was definitely forgetting all about Kaiba. After a few more drinks, she started to really loosen up to the point that she was dancing with just about anyone. After growing bored of dancing around with some random guy, she made her way over to the DJ booth, where Duke was playing some rap music. Duke looked up and instantly remembered the tall orchid-haired beauty from the tournament.

"Well hey there Penelope. Are you enjoying the party?"

"Hell yes I am," she said loudly. "I am totally loving the iced tea too." Duke raised an eyebrow and smirked.

"Well thanks, I made it myself. So are you here to request a song?"

"YouhaveanySevendust?" she said slurring her words together.

"Sevendust? Sure thing." He put one of their songs on and Penelope started cheering loudly and Duke decided to use this opportunity to steal a dance with her.

"Wanna dance?" he asked her.

"Sure!" she said grabbing him. Soon they were dancing really close together, so close that their bodies were touching. Duke couldn't help but stare at her body, taking in her tall frame and her shimmering turquoise eyes. Penelope thought he wasn't too bad looking either. She heard rumors that he was a player, a guy that could get any girl he wanted to do anything for him-but that didn't stop her from having a good time with him. After a couple heavy rock songs, Duke and Penelope hung out in the DJ booth and within a few minutes they were making out.

* * *

"Big brother, were are you going?"

"I've got to go do some business," Seto said buttoning up his black button down shirt.

"Isn't it kind of late?" he asked looking at the clock. It read 11 o'clock at night. "Are you going to Duke's party because Penelope is there?"

"I already told you there is nothing going on between us," he insisted.

Mokuba rolled his eyes.

"Whatever you say Seto. But like I said before, I think you should give her a chance. You could use a girlfriend."

"I don't have time."

"You had plenty of time in the dining room."

"You saw us?" Seto said with shock. Mokuba blushed.

"Yeah…and I want to meet her. You should invite her over sometime."

"No. Now I'm leaving." He left his room and left the house. He got into his Ferrari and drove to Duke's game shop.

When he walked into the party, everyone was partying hard. Girls were dancing in groups grinding up against the guys, other kids were taking shots or chugging beer, Joey and Tristan were playing beer pong, Yugi was dancing in a crowd of girls, and Tea and Stephanie were taking shots of vodka with Mai Valentine.

"This isn't a party, it's a three-ring circus," he mumbled. He made his way through the crowd and bumped into Bakura and Serenity, Joey's sister. They appeared to be the only ones that were sober among all the partying teenagers.

"Oh hello Kaiba, fancy seeing you here," Bakura said in his usual cheerful demeanor. Serenity gave him a friendly smile. He could tell both of them were very uncomfortable being here, and probably stuck together in hopes of avoiding the pressure of getting drunk like everyone else.

"Have you guys seen Penelope anywhere?"

"Yeah, I think she was hanging out with Duke Devlin a minute ago."

Seto felt his blood begin to boil. What could that pretty boy possibly want with her?

"Thanks," he said. He left the two quiet teens and when he got to the DJ booth he didn't see anyone except for Chris Fulton, Penelope's younger brother playing the music with a cigarette in his mouth.

"Hey Kaiba! What's up my man?"

"Where's your sister?"

"I don't know. I just got here with Natalie. I saw that the DJ booth was unmanned so I decided to crank out some Afroman."

Seto grumbled and decided to continue his search in finding Penelope. It was likely that Duke was probably taking advantage of her at this very moment and he would have to get her out ASAP.

Seto walked through the crowd and eventually bumped into Natalie who was dancing with a pack of girls.

"Natalie, can I talk to you for a minute?" Natalie turned around. She was dressed in a electric blue strapless dress with black high heels that made her look like a runway model.

"Sure. What's the problem?"

"I had a fight with your sister."

"Uh oh. What did you do?"

"She heard me talking to Mokuba. He asked me if I was interested in her and I said no." Natalie glared at him.

"You can't say those things around her, no matter who it is your talking to. Her ex did that to her after she slept with him and next thing you know she quit the cheerleading squad and started dressing in black."

"She quit because of her ex? I thought she quit because she didn't like cheerleading anymore.

""Who told you that?"

"The girls at her old school?"

"They don't know shit. What you need to do now is apologize to her."

"You're kidding right?"

"No I'm not. Listen Kaiba, I've seen what that guy has done to my sister and I don't want you to hurt her either."

"Fine. But I still have to find her first."

"Alright then, let's go find her." Natalie followed him through the game shop and Seto decided to head to the back room. Seto found that it was unlocked and when he opened the door his heart sank and started to break.

Penelope and Duke were heavily making out, half dressed and Duke was straddling her over a table panting heavily. Penelope broke away from Duke and her face turned completely white when she saw Seto and her sister Natalie standing in the doorway.

'How am I going to explain myself now?'

* * *

Well there you have it! Chapter twelve is done. The rating is still at T unless I decided to add a lemon later. Not sure yet about that. But all I know is that there is going to be tons more drama coming up. Stay tuned!

(And don't forget to review...come on...you know you want to. I _might_ just put in the lemon if you do...)


	13. A Helping Hand

**Chapter Thirteen: A Helping Hand**

Penelope immediately pushed Duke off her and he stumbled backward into one of the shelves that kept boxes of dungeon dice monsters games on it. The contents from the shelf fell onto the floor, and Duke swore loudly. Penelope sat up from the table and stared at Kaiba, trying to find the words to say that would make things right…but at this point, nothing could make things right.

"I'm sorry," she said getting off the table. She ran past Seto and her sister and through the crowd of people, trying not to let anyone see her distress. Soon she was outside the game shop and sat down on the sidewalk out front. All was quiet for a few minutes until she heard a set of soft footsteps coming her way.

She looked up, only to see a pissed off Seto looking down at her.

"Mind tell me what the hell you were thinking back there?"

Penelope buried her face in her hands, trying to hide the tears that she knew would soon come. She felt ashamed for what had happened. She got drunk and almost had sex with a guy she hardly even knew. (Something her brother Ned did quite often).

"I just wanted to have one night where I didn't have to think about you," she said.

"So you decided to get yourself wasted and let Devlin get into your pants?"

"I didn't mean to!" she shot back. "You said I didn't mean anything to you!"

Seto sighed and sat down next to her. He wanted to take her in his arms and hold her, but he was still upset and heartbroken at what he had seen. Another guy was with the girl he was falling for-and it hurt.

"I was lying."

Penelope looked up at him, trying to ignore the queasy feeling in her stomach and let him continue.

"I lied to Mokuba. I guess I just don't feel comfortable admitting anything yet."

Her stomach was really starting to bother her. She hoped that she wouldn't throw up, but it was going to happen soon. Drinking four long island iced teas was not exactly the smartest thing she did.

"You're the first girl I've actually liked," he admitted.

"Are you for real?" she asked. Seto nodded. "Wow. I didn't think I was considering you seemed to know what you were doing when we were in the dining room."

Seto smirked and put his arm around her.

"That's just the beginning," he whispered in her ear.

Penelope wanted to enjoy the chills he gave her from his voice, the feeling of his warm breath against her ear-but the sick feeling in her stomach was too much to ignore. She pushed him away and ran into the bushes and started puking her guts out. Seto quickly ran over to her and pulled her hair back, making sure she was okay.

"You had too much to drink, didn't you?" he said. Penelope's vomiting ceased and she glared back at him.

"Shut. Up."

Natalie came out the game shop and ran over to Seto and her sister.

"Is everything okay?" she asked.

"Does it look like I'm okay?" Penelope said.

"She's just had too much too drink," Seto said. "Can you get some water for her?"

"Sure. Be right back." Natalie went back inside and Penelope stood up and tossed her hair over her shoulders.

"Are you okay?" he asked her.

"Yeah. You know you didn't have to do that."

Seto looked at her and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"I know, but I wanted to."

"Then I guess you're not as much of a douche bag as I thought you were."

He removed his hand from her shoulder from that comment.

"You still annoy me to no end," he grumbled. Natalie returned with a cup of water and made Penelope wash out her mouth and drank the rest of it.

"How many of those things did you have anyway?" she asked her sister.

"Uh…four maybe?"

Natalie sighed.

"Seto, I think you should get her home."

"And why can't you bring me home?" Penelope said crossing her arms.

"Because, I am sleeping over at a friend's house, that's why. Plus, I didn't drive over here. Seto, can you take her home?"

Seto crossed his arms and he grumbled. Penelope was a pain in his ass enough already, but he couldn't just leave her here with all of these drunken idiots.

"Fine." Both of them agreed. Natalie went back into Duke's game shop, and Seto took the keys to his Ferrari out from his pocket.

"Come on, let's go." Penelope grumbled, but nearly stumbled down the stairs in the process. Seto managed to catch her before she came in contact with the concrete and walked her to his car. She stumbled all over the place, but she managed to get into the passenger's seat without hitting her head.

As soon as Penelope was all set (and her seatbelt was buckled) Seto drove her home.

"So where do you live?" he asked.

Penelope held her head, still very woozy and groggy from the night's earlier events, but she was able to tell him where to go.

Her house was actually in a very nice part of Domino where a lot of upper-middle classes lived in large two-story houses. Her house was at the end of the street and had a large cobblestone driveway with a fountain in the middle of it. The house was a large white Victorian styled home with a red door and blue trimming on the shutters, and Seto noticed that no one was home except for a slightly beat-up BMW that sat in the driveway.

"Is that your parents' car?" he asked her. Penelope squinted and realized exactly who the car belonged to.

"Shit," she said. "I thought he wasn't coming home for another month and a half."

"Who?" he asked her.

"My brother."

Seto looked at with question, but she really wasn't in the mood to talk about him. He was nothing but a loser studying at a university, throwing away all the money his parents were giving him on alcohol and having sex with underage girls. As kids he was mean to her and Natalie and Ned always picked on Chris constantly. In a way, he was like the black sheep of the family (with the exception of Chris's drug issues).

"Can you just help me to the house?" she said. Seto nodded and got out of the car and ran around to the other side to help her out and up the steps towards the front door. Some of the alcohol was starting to wear off, but she was still having trouble getting up the steps.

"Do you want me to walk you up to your room?" he asked her.

"No. I'm fine!" she said opening the door.

"You couldn't even go down the stairs without tripping, what makes you think you're going to get upstairs by yourself?"

"Because I'm fucking invincible," she said sarcastically.

"And you are still drunk."

"I'm a-okay," she said walking into the foyer and heading towards the staircase. As soon as she headed up three steps she stumbled over her own feet and fell up the stairs.

"Oh for god's sake," he said heading over to her. He helped Penelope up and led her up the stairs, making sure she didn't trip over her own feet again.

When they got to the top of the stairs, Penelope was able to make it to her room, but Seto was still following her.

"Why are you still following me?" she said, trying not to slur her words.

"I can't make sure you're okay?" he said in defense. She sighed and opened the door to her room and took off her sneakers and threw them onto the white carpet. Seto was not surprised to see that her room had a dark Gothic theme going on with spider web curtains, black and red furniture and red walls.

"Nice room. It's…interesting." It was interesting, but Seto was starting to think that maybe her exterior didn't match who she really was on the inside.

"Thanks." Penelope found a hair tie on her dresser and tied her hair back and took out the large hoop earrings that most likely belonged to her sister. "Um…can you leave for a second so I can change?"

"Sorry. I'll get out," he said leaving her room and shutting the door behind him. A guy with the same orchid hair passed him and then stopped to stare at him.

"Dude! So are you like going to sleep with my little sister or something?"

Seto raised an eyebrow at him.

"I'm sure you'll have no problem getting Natalie to do what you want. She's been pretty good at getting boyfriends every week."

"I'm not with her," he said.

Ned nodded.

"Wow. Penelope actually found someone just as feisty as her then? I'm impressed you've actually lasted this long. Usually she sends them packing as soon as they get to her front door."

There was something about Ned that Seto didn't like…he just couldn't place his finger on what it is. He didn't seem nice at all.

"But once you're done with her, you should hang with me. I can hook you up with some really hot girls. Younger girls too. It's pretty easy to get high school girls, if you know what I mean."

Seto glared at him. This guy was starting to piss him off and insinuating that his sister was just a hookup.

"I don't know what you mean, but I think you should leave now."

Just then Penelope opened the door, dressed in a t-shirt and pajama pants.

"Ned, will you go away and leave Seto alone?"

"Whoa. Sorry," he said sarcastically. "I was just talking to your boyfriend."

"Ned. Go away. You're not wanted."

"Whatever," he said walking away and heading downstairs.

"I am so sorry about him. He's a douche bag."

"I've noticed." Seto and Penelope went back into her room and Seto tucked her in and kissed her on the forehead.

"Are you staying?" she asked him.

"I would, but you need to sleep. And I don't take advantage of girls who are drunk."

Penelope smiled and quickly fell asleep. Seto left her house and drove home with nothing but thoughts of her in his mind.

* * *

Bakura's evil spirit watched the entire scene through the millennium eye. Everything from Penelope's drunken antics all the way to Seto Kaiba tucking her into bed and kissing her goodnight.

He decided that tomorrow he would remind her of the daunting task that awaited her-give her a good scare.

"She has three days to finish her task. If not…I will take control of her mind and force her."

He invaded her dreams that night. Her dream started off with her and Seto kissing in an elaborate bedroom. The clothes started coming off and right before he made love to her, he disappeared and nothing surrounded her except for blackness. She couldn't see, couldn't breathe, and couldn't even hear herself scream.

She fell into the blackness and all she heard was Bakura's evil laugh and the echo of his voice saying: "Three days…" over and over again.

_"Your tragic fate is looking so clear...it's your fucking nightmare."_

_

* * *

_

Hope you liked it. I can't tell you I am that I decided to continue with this story. The quote at the end was from Avenged Sevenfold-I don't own them (even though I wished that I did.) And another thing: If you're under 21 (or under 18 in other countries) then don't drink. It sucks getting drunk, it stinks throwing up and hangovers are not fun.

You know the drill, rate and review and I will sit back and drink a cocktail (hypocrite) and I will work on updating the next chapter.

Actually, just forget what I said. Just review please. :)

See you next time!


	14. Beware the Rumor Mill

**Chapter Fourteen: Beware the Rumor Mill**

Penelope was glad to begin a normal school day once again and be away from the world of dueling (and Seto) for a while. The drama that had gone on between them over the past weekend was ridiculous. One minute he was all over her, and the next he was making her angry and they found themselves yelling at each other, and then he was being nice to her!

Today she hoped to avoid him at all costs. The last thing she needed was for him to interfere while her sister talked about dragging her to cheerleading tryouts after school.

Yes, she had decided to go back to the world of competitive cheerleading-even after everything her last squad had done to her after she quit. But this squad she hoped would be different (Tea and Serenity were on it) and most importantly-they needed good cheerleaders.

Most squads had a couple of cheerleaders that would hold the team back, but in this case it was the entire squad. Most of them couldn't dance, half of them couldn't come up with any creative choreography, and they stopped attempting basket tosses and lifts altogether. They tried some this year, but two of their cheerleaders ended up getting injured, leaving two spots open that desperately needed to be filled.

As soon as Natalie found out, she dragged her sister over to the sign up sheet and now this afternoon Penelope has to audition with her sister. When Penelope asked her why this was necessary, Natalie replied with: "This is a great opportunity for us to bond and re-connect. And if you try out, I'll try playing that children's card game of yours." Penelope then went on to say that Duel Monsters was not a children's card game, but Natalie ignored her and went off to her class.

Penelope had a minute to head to her locker before class, so she headed down the hall to get out her book for her calculus class. That was when she started hearing the rumors.

"Hey, isn't that Penelope Fulton?"

"Yeah. I heard she made out with Duke Devlin."

"Made out? I heard she slept with him."

"What a skank!"

Penelope was drunk at the party Duke Devlin had at his game shop. She remembered following him into the game room, then he kissed her and after that she couldn't remember anything until Seto came outside and held her hair back when she threw up in the bushes.

She sighed and wanted to hide right now. Not just from everyone else…but Seto too. Chances are he is probably pissed off at her for hooking up with another guy-when clearly she showed a liking to him first.

Penelope was just about to close her locker when she saw Seto headed her way. She kept the door open and hid behind it in hopes that he wouldn't see her-but it was no use.

"How are you feeling?" was the first thing he said to her. Penelope shut her locker and looked up at him and into his sapphire blue eyes.

"Well with the exception of the rumor mill, I'm fine," she said with wit.

"I was asking about _you_, not the peanut gallery. Can't you just answer a simple question?"

"You know what I mean," Penelope said spitefully. Then she paused for a moment to flip off someone who called her a slut. "What do you want anyway?"

"I wanted to see you. You must be shaken up from this past weekend."

"To be honest, I can't even remember hooking up with Duke Devlin."

"Not that," he said. "I meant when Bakura took you."

Penelope felt her stomach knot and her throat became dry.

"Listen…can we talk about this later? I really have to get to class."

"Then how about after school?" he asked her.

"I can't…" she hesitated. "I have…cheerleading tryouts."

Seto raised an eyebrow with interest. "Cheerleading? For some reason I can't picture you jumping around in a skirt and waving pom-poms at everyone."

"Really? What do you picture me doing?"

"Something that actually is a sport." Penelope glared at him.

"Listen, cheerleading is not just waving pom-poms and jumping up and down. We run an 8-minute mile, bench press at least our body weight or more and do stunts that would send an amateur to the hospital. We are athletes."

Seto smirked and inched closer to her so he was just inches from her.

"Well then, I look forward to seeing you at the next football game." Their eyes met for a brief moment and then he continued down the hall.

The late bell rang at that moment and Penelope sprinted down the hall to calculus, praying that the teacher wouldn't mark her late.

* * *

The whole day the rumor mill was full of gossip, most of it from Duke Devlin's party. About half that gossip revolved around Penelope and Duke's infamous hookup. Seto sat at lunch by himself as usual-finding it difficult to ignore the gossip.

Massie, Angela, Taylor and Katie were some of the school cheerleaders-and part of Duke Devlin's fan club that was infamous for starting rumors about nearly everyone in the school. They started one about Tristan and Serenity saying that they were an item, and they pretty much assumed that Seto was gay just because he never even bothered to talk to or even look at any of the girls in the school (especially them.)

"She is such a slut!" Taylor said fiddling around with her cell phone "And a freak," Massie said.

"Hey, did you hear she was trying out for cheerleading?" Angela said glaring over at Penelope's table. "Oh hell no! What is she going to do? Scare everyone to death? Give me a…" the girl started making gagging noises and pretended to slit her throat. Katie fell to the floor and then sat back up, god forbid that the poof on top of her head would get messed up.

"What am I missing out on now?" Penelope's sister Natalie sat down with them, not quite sure what to think of her friends at the moment.

"Nothing. Do you even know that your sister is trying out for cheerleading?"

"That's because I told her too."

Katie's grin turned into a hard frown.

"W. T. F?" Massie said.

"Look, I know you guys don't like my sister after last Saturday, but trust me on this: she's got skills. Well, maybe not as good as me-she has spent the last year and a half playing card games…but I'm sure she remembers how to do a backhand spring."

Angela rolled her eyes.

"Just because she's good doesn't mean we'll let her on. There's tons of other girls who could handle the sport."

"You mean the pom-pom waving that you're always doing?" Natalie said. "My old squad would have destroyed you."

Taylor finally put her phone down after texting her friend and narrowed her eyes at Natalie.

"I'd hate to break it to you Nat, but you are not a Lion anymore. Actually, you're not even one of the Warriors yet, and neither is your freak of a sister."

All the girls looked at Penelope's table. Tea was braiding Penelope's hair, Joey and Tristan were trying to see who could chug milk the fastest, and Yugi and Bakura were trading cards.

"She's not exactly Warrior material," Taylor said. "But if she can prove herself, then we'll stop the rumors about her and Devlin."

Natalie nodded and then gave her friends a devious grin.

Seto knew that the girl was up to something, and by the look on her face…he had a feeling it involved him.

They got into a huddle and started whispering, giggling and squealing. Massie popped up and raised an eyebrow at Seto and popped back down.

Seto turned away from the girls and towards Penelope. Tea was braiding Penelope's hair into pigtails and the two of them were laughing at something Joey had said.

He loved the way her face lit up when he smiled-something he rarely saw from her. And in his opinion, she looked much better when she wasn't hiding beneath all the dark clothes and makeup. Then his eyes went to the rest of her body, admiring the curves he knew that were under the hideous pink blazer and the long blue skirt. He had seen her long legs and felt her skin underneath her sweater.

A feeling began to rise up in his stomach. Not a feeling of butterflies-a feeling of want. He wanted to be with her, but his want could not be satisfied because of his busy schedule and the fact that there weren't enough hours in a day. All he could think of was being alone with her.

* * *

The rest of the day Seto had a hard time staying focused. Penelope was in half of his classes and he would always find himself staring at her. From the way she tapped her pencil against her temple from the audible sigh that came from her lips every few minutes-he found himself becoming more and more mesmerized by the minute.

Penelope was aware the entire time that he had been passing glances at her from across the room-she knew because she would occasionally glance back at him and admire his good looks. She loved the way his hair brought attention to his piercing blue eyes and the way he had kissed her during the tournament.

* * *

"Hello? We need to go!" Natalie was standing at Penelope's locker waiting for her to get her cheerleading gear for tryouts.

"Sorry. I'm coming." She took her duffel bag out of her locker and followed her sister to the girl's locker room on the first floor near the gym.

Natalie and Penelope quickly got changed into their practice gear, something Penelope hadn't done since freshman year. Both of them were in black shorts and t-shirts, except Natalie's was white and Penelope's was black.

* * *

"Welcome to tryouts!" Katie said with a huge grin on her face. She was one of the many catty cheerleaders on the squad and one of the best flyers in the school. Her blond hair was now put into a ponytail (minus the poof) and all the cheerleaders were wearing white tank tops with blue shorts or sweatpants that had warriors written on the back.

"I hope we don't have to dress like that," Penelope whispered to her sister. Natalie punched her arm.

"Shut up!" she whispered. "I am not going to have you embarrass me in front of my friends!"

"Today we are going to have each of you come up and show us your best stunts," Massie said continuing for Katie.

"Next you have to do a cheer," Taylor said. Penelope was surprised she didn't have her cell phone on her for a change.

"And finally, we are going to give you some choreography and whomever follows it the best…might just make the squad," Angela said finishing for the cheerleaders.

"Our coach is also here to watch and help us choose the two best cheerleaders," Katie said smiling. "But ultimately…I will be part of that decision. So if you can impress me and the coach, then you're in. Let's get started now…shall we?"

Tryouts were brutal. Most of the girls couldn't get through the first stage which involved doing a simple toe-touch and splits. Natalie's performance was flawless. She easily did every stunt the girls asked her to do. Penelope struggled a little bit more, but was still able to pull off several handsprings and land on one foot at a time when she did her cartwheels.

The second stage involved a cheer.

"Ready? Okay! Domino High! Hey, hey what do you say? We're going to win today! Go fight win!"

"Come on y'all, let's hear it! We've got warrior spirit!"

Penelope groaned in dismay after she left the performing mat. 'That cheer was so corny, even I wouldn't want to hear it at a game.'

Natalie approached her and placed her hand on her shoulder.

"You okay?"

"I'm fine, except my cheer sucked."

"Hey, don't worry about it. I know you're a bit rusty but you're doing fine." Penelope rolled her eyes.

"I could be practicing for nationals right now, you know…"

"I know. Just relax."

Massie and Taylor led all the girls out to the performance mat and showed them the routine they would have to learn. There was a lot of hip movements involved, some of the moves being a little suggestive for cheerleading-something Penelope was no stranger to.

Natalie quickly picked up the routine with ease while most of the girls struggled to keep up. Katie would go around tapping the shoulders of girls if they weren't getting it. Penelope got nervous knowing Katie would tap her shoulder if she didn't start moving. She went into the spin and instantly bumped into the girl next to her.

"Ow! Watch it!" Penelope grumbled and tried again, this time whacking her sister upside the head.

"Penelope! Just relax!" The girls continued on while Katie and her friends glared at her. If she didn't get through the tryouts, then they would forever brand her as Natalie's freaky Goth sister. She closed her eyes and thought of her dueling and how she would always find her happy place before she took the stage…the rush of playing…the feeling of winning…and the feel of Seto's lips against hers…Seto's gorgeous eyes…

_I'll see you at the next football game then…_

'Does Seto really think that I can get through this?'

Penelope went forward in front of the girls and instead of doing the choreography, she added jumps, extra spins and made it much flashier and interesting than what the girls asked her to do.

"What the hell is she doing?" Angela said.

"Coach! She's making a mockery of our routine!" Katie shouted. The coach ignored the girls and marveled at Penelope's unique moves.

"I think we might've found ourselves a new flyer," she said smiling.

* * *

Bakura watched the whole thing unfold from the millennium eye.

"She's stalling…I certainly hope she has not forgotten what she needs to do. She has one more day left before I have to force her to retrieve the millennium scales myself."

Bakura smiled wickedly and admired the gleam of the millennium rod. All it took for him was to murder Marik and claim it for himself.

"After we get the scales I can use her to retrieve the key, the necklace and the puzzle and then I can finally complete my master plan after all these years. The world will fall to me and then I can get rid of the girl too. She will no longer be any use to me after my plan is complete anyway."

Penelope had no idea what purpose Bakura had for her other than finding the millennium items for him. At this point she had forgotten all her task of getting the scales, her mind was too preoccupied with cheerleading, training for the nationals, and Seto.

Speaking of Seto…it was inevitable that he would want to talk to her soon about Bakura.

* * *

'I still can't tell him no matter what,' she thought as she walked with her sister outside to catch a ride home with their brother Ned. He sat in his red BMW waiting for them while he his radio was on full blast-sending waves of super loud rap music in every direction.

She was about to head towards her brother's car when a shiny black Ferrari caught her eye.

Seto Kaiba had forgotten one of his textbooks at school and had just pulled up to the front of the school when he saw the Fulton sisters coming out of the school, both of them dressed in shorts and t-shirts. Both of them were carrying duffel bags and looked exhausted.

He got out of the car and Penelope stopped when she saw him coming her way.

"Seto? What are you doing here?"

"I forgot my textbook," he said as his eyes traveled up and down her body. Then his blue eyes looked over to see Ned waiting in his BMW. For some strange reason, he didn't like Ned nor did he want to trust or befriend him. He seemed like the type of guy who would spend most of his days partying instead of doing something productive.

"Hey Penelope! Are you coming with us or not?"

"I can give you a ride home," he said to her. Penelope looked up at him as butterflies began to form in her stomach.

"Ned, just go."

"But mom and dad-"

"Don't give a crap who I hang out with. Seto has offered to drive me home."

"Whatever." Ned practically slammed on the gas, his tires squealing loudly (and Natalie held on for dear life) as her older brother sped off down the street.

"Seto…did you really come here to get a textbook?"

"Yes. You want to come with me to get it?"

"Sure." Penelope followed Seto back into the school.

* * *

Sorry for the minor delay in updates. I got busy with my art and am currently reading a really good book that I'm having a hard time putting down.

Looks like Seto and Penelope are going to spend some quality time together...hm...should be interesting...

Please review and it'll motivate me to update faster! :)


	15. The Reminder

**Chapter Fifteen: The Reminder**

After retrieving his textbook, Seto offered to take Penelope out for ice cream.

"I'll go, but I'm not walking around in town dressed like this," she said hinting at her practice clothes. The last thing she wanted was to be with him in her sweaty gym clothes or her hideous school uniform. He was casually dressed in a t-shirt and jeans-a huge surprise for her. She never saw him as the type to actually let loose be a teenager for a few hours.

"Did you want me to stop at your house so you can change?" he said as they drove through town.

"Nah. I'd rather not go home yet."

"Then do you want to go to the mall?"

"You mean Seto Kaiba, mister super-genius-business-man-extraordinaire actually wants to go to the mall?" she said with added sarcasm.

"I'm not as uptight as you think. Do you want to go or not."

"Okay." He continued to drive as Penelope fiddled with the dials on his car radio, eventually settling on an upbeat punk-rock song. She started singing along happily while Seto smiled as he drove into the mall parking lot.

"So where do you want to go?" he asked her as they entered the mall. "Wait. Let me guess…you want to go to that freaky Hot Topic store, don't you?"

"I could use another black dress," she said.

"So you can massacre it with safety pins? Not a chance." Penelope glared at him.

"I'm the one buying the clothes, what do you care?"

"No you're not. Today I'm giving you a break. And besides, I want to see what else looks good on you besides black."

Penelope sighed.

"Fine. Just don't make me wear pink."

"Not even hot pink?"

"Especially not hot pink. And don't you dare take me into one of those stupid preppy stores."

"You don't have to worry. Now come on. After this we can get some ice cream." Penelope rolled her eyes and followed him through the thick crowds of teenagers who were also shopping.

Believe it or not, Seto actually did occasionally take Mokuba to the mall, go to amusement parks and take him out to eat. But with his stoic nature, he hasn't had a lot of other people to hang out with besides his brother…until Penelope came along. For once it was nice to try and forget everything and be a teenager for once. After his parents died and Gozaburo adopted him (and also died), he never had a chance to be a kid and not have to worry about providing for someone besides himself.

Seto and Penelope went into a shop that sold a lot of different kinds of clothes. Penelope was immediately drawn to the rack of black baggy pants covered in chains, but Seto steered her away and brought her to a rack that was full of all types of colorful dresses.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Pick one out," he said to her. "Just not the black one." She rolled her eyes at him and fiddled through the rack for a few minutes and eventually found some printed blue, green, purple and yellow dresses to try on in the dressing room.

She put on the first dress and looked in the mirror. This was pretty close to the girl she was trying not to become. Two years ago she would've easily walked into this story with her sister and tried on anything that Natalie liked. Now she was letting herself slip back again because of a guy.

But Seto wasn't trying to change her. He knew that the black clothes and her sarcastic attitude were just a front.

What he didn't know was why she did it. In the ninth grade Penelope had fallen for a football player and dated him nearly the whole year, doing anything to please him. She thought she was in love, but it was all a lie. Matt cheated on her and it hurt her so much she cut herself off from everything that reminded her of him, or brought her near him. She changed her look drastically to drive people away and quit cheerleading. Then she got into duel monsters and never looked back.

Now she was falling back into her old ways and was afraid.

'What if he ends up doing the same thing Matt did?"

"Penelope, are you alright in there?" Penelope sighed and came out in the blue halter dress. Seto, usually being stoic in nature was now surprised and amazed at how beautiful she looked.

"I look stupid, don't I," she said softly.

"No. I kind of like it. Do you like it?"

Penelope hesitated. She didn't want to go back to being the girl she was trying to get rid of, but it was pretty hard to stop it.

'No. I'm not going back. I'm moving on. I'm not my sister's clone or Matt's fool anymore. And I've finally met a guy who wants me to be myself again.'

Penelope looked up at him and smiled.

"I want to try on the others first." Seto smiled back and she showed him the other dresses she had picked out. They all looked good on her tall frame, but she ended up picking the yellow strapless one.

* * *

After that ordeal, she changed into the dress and proudly wore it through the mall while walking along side Seto towards the food court.

Suddenly she stopped.

"What's wrong?" Seto asked her.

Penelope froze when she saw some people from her old school sitting at one of the tables, laughing and joking amongst each other.

"I can't sit over there."

"Why not?" Seto asked her. He looked at the other teenagers, and then recognized Elizabeth sitting among them.

"Do you know them?"

"I used to. They're from my old school…and they're the reason I changed schools."

"So they're the ones who started going after you because you started dueling?"

Penelope nodded.

"Look. You can't let them bother you anymore. We're going to get our ice cream and then we'll eat outside. Does that work for you?"

"Yeah." The two teens walked past the table and went straight to the ice cream counter.

"Is that who I think it is?" one of them said.

"It looks like the little goth freak has come out of her dark place."

Elizabeth watched them and instantly recognized the guy she was with.

"Is that…Kaiba?"

"You know him?" her friend asked.

"Yeah. He came over to practice once asking about the freak. Though I can't imagine why."

Just then Penelope's ex-boyfriend appeared and saw Penelope with Kaiba ordering ice cream.

"Matt! Where have you been?" Elizabeth didn't like to be kept waiting.

"Sorry. Just fixing my hair." Matt was more than just your stereotypical high school athlete with classic good looks. He was Penelope's ex-boyfriend and a backstabbing liar. After he convinced Penelope to sleep with him, he went behind her back and slept with Elizabeth too. He glanced over to the ice-cream where he saw his ex talking to Seto Kaiba.

"Whoa. I didn't know Seto Kaiba had such low standards getting with her," he said with a smirk.

"I know, right?" Elizabeth looked at them and then her gaze was locked with Penelope's. Elizabeth grabbed Matt and kissed him hard on the lips and made sure that Penelope was watching. She wanted to rub in the fact that she got her ex-boyfriend all to herself now.

"She's trying to get to me," Penelope said. Seto turned around and saw Elizabeth, the same girl that flirted with him kissing some guy.

"How is she getting to you?" he asked.

"That guy she's kissing is my ex-boyfriend. I was with him for almost a year until he cheated on me."

"Did he break up with you after?"

"No. I broke up with him. I couldn't stand it anymore. And it didn't help that I would see all his games because of the cheerleading, so I quit that too."

Things were finally starting to make sense to him. He was starting to understand why she dressed in dark clothes and gave him so much attitude.

Elizabeth and Matt parted and both of them smirked. Seto and Penelope finally got their ice creams, both of them ordering cookie dough. She was afraid to get hurt again.

"I didn't know you liked cookie dough," she said to him.

"There's a lot of things you don't know about me," he said smirking. "Mokuba got me into it."

"So did my sister. When we were kids we used to have a secret twin language, and the only other kids we talked to at school were another set of twins. And every week during the summer we would get cookie dough ice cream." Seto smiled at that comment.

They looked over at Elizabeth, Matt and the other kids-all of whom were sneering at Penelope.

"Don't let them bother you."

"You're right," she said.

"Hey Kaiba! Have fun with my sloppy seconds!" Matt shouted from the table.

Seto looked at her with curiosity.

"Yes I did, and no, I don't love him."Seto understood what she meant. She slept with Matt and thankfully, doesn't love him anymore.

"Come on," he said taking her hand and bringing her towards the table.

"No Seto, just ignore them."

"They can't say that about you and get away with it. Besides, I'm sure you would love to get back at them."

Penelope was now in front of their table, goosebumps forming on her arms, and a knot forming in her stomach; not the good kind of knot where you get nervous from meeting a guy, but more like the bad kind where you want to vomit but can't.

"Hey freak, how does it feel knowing that I slept with Matt?" Elizabeth said. The others laughed.

"I don't know," Penelope said. "How should I feel?"

Elizabeth was taken slightly aback by her sarcastic comment.

"Actually, I do know how I should feel. I actually feel happy because if it wasn't for Matt cheating on me with a slut like you,"

"She would've never met me," Seto finished for her. Then he pulled her into a sweet kiss in front of all of them. They walked away from the table, all of the teens stunned by what they had just witnessed.

* * *

After that ordeal, Seto and Penelope sat in the park together, finishing the last of their ice cream cones. They sat on top of the picnic table watching the kids play baseball, people walk their dogs and a group of boys playing Frisbee.

"Seto?" He turned to look at her.

"Thank you for helping me back there." He smirked.

"Of course." He placed his hand on top of hers and Penelope felt her face blush red like a tomato.

Seto noticed she was nervous so he changed the subject to her cheerleading tryouts and listened to her say how the girls probably don't like her because she didn't stick to their original choreography. Then it went to Seto's new virtual gaming system that he had been working on for the past three years. Most of his time has been consumed by it, but if everything goes well it will be out next year in arcades all around the country.

Things were finally starting to move along for the two of them. They hadn't fought since yesterday and Seto was liking her more and more. Tons of girls usually threw themselves at him all the time-he could have any girl he wanted, but refused every single one. He would much rather have a girl who could actually be herself around him, and he could be himself around her.

"So since you paid for the ice cream and my dress, then I'm guessing this was a date?" she asked him.

"Date? I never actually said it was a date…" Penelope leaned in closer to him, taking in the smell of his cologne and his beautiful blue eyes. "But we can certainly make it one."

"Oh yeah, how?" Seto leaned in and kissed her.

"Does that answer your question?" he said with a smirk. At first that cocky smirk of his turned her off, but now she was starting to like it. She pulled him towards him and kissed him again, but with more passion than before. His lips were nice and soft against hers, and his kisses were gentle this time, not rough and possessive like they were during the tournament.

After a minute or two they parted and Penelope could sense a chill in the air…it was an odd feeling. Usually she felt hot after kissing someone, not cold. She looked up at the sky and saw that the blue had faded to gray. The wind rustled and all the autumn leaves blew everywhere, some of them nearly getting stuck in her hair.

"Is something wrong?" he asked her.

"Nothing. I guess I'm just a little cold."

"Do you want me to get my jacket out of my car?"

"Yeah. That would be nice." Seto nodded and went to the other end of the park back to his car.

As soon as he was out of sight, that was when Bakura appeared out of thin air.

"What do you want now?" Penelope said annoyed.

"I came here to remind you what you need to do for me. I want the millennium scales by midnight or I will force you to retrieve them for me."

Penelope felt a sickly feeling in her stomach-a feeling that made her not want to go get the item for Bakura because she knew it was wrong, but even worse, there was nothing she could do to stop him. If she told anyone, they would be killed and she simply could not take that risk with any of her friends or family members. Bakura smiled wickedly and his eyes went up and down her body.

"Well, I see that Kaiba has taken a liking to you."

"Leave him out of this," she said glaring at him.

"It would be fun to control his mind, see what makes him tick."

"No! You can't! I won't let you..."

"Get me the scales and no harm shall come to him," he finished.

Penelope sighed as Bakura vanished.

_You have until midnight_.

The words echoed in the air as the wind howled sending a strong gust of wind that caused the Frisbee players out in the distance to abandon their game. About a minute later Seto came back with his jacket and placed it around Penelope's shoulders.

"Better?" he asked her.

"Much better," she said admiring the soft black leather and feeling how soft it was.

"It's starting to get a little cold out. Do you want to leave?" She nodded and followed him back to his car. The sky began to darken even more and raindrops began to fall from the dark sky. The two teens quickly ran back to Seto's car and didn't stop running until they were inside his car and out of the rain.

For a few minutes they were quiet as they sat in Seto's Ferrari, watching as the rain pounded angrily on the windows.

"I wish that it wasn't so cold out," she said.

"Why is that he asked?"

"I would be out in the rain right now. I actually like the rain but if it's cold I hate it."

Seto smiled and kissed her forehead. If it was warmer out he would've taken her back outside and made out with her in the rain, not caring if he was completely soaked. To everyone else, the two continued their usual routine of bickering, but if anyone looked past that they would see that Seto was falling for Penelope and he was starting to enjoy it.

"How about I take you home?"

"Yeah. I've gotta get started on that English paper anyway. I am way behind." Seto started the car and left the parking lot.

"I'm already finished," Seto said proudly.

"How the hell did you actually get done? Aren't you busy designing that duel disk?"

"I always start my assignments as soon as possible. I'm not exactly one to procrastinate."

"Well not all of us are as perfect as you are," she said teasingly. "If I make the squad then I'll have two hours of practice everyday, and then my sister is going to make me practice with her every Saturday afternoon. Then I have to practice dueling for the Nationals that are coming this winter, and I have to do a weekend shift at the pizza place with Stephanie."

"I'm getting ready to host another tournament at Kaiba land this spring," he said. "I barely have anytime to go out and have fun like this." Penelope paused and looked at him.

"I know," she said. "I know exactly how you feel. Everyone expects you to do everything and be everything all at once."

"And if you screw it up then everything is your fault," Seto added.

Seto pulled into the driveway of Penelope's house.

"You know, it's not so bad when you have friends."

"I don't need friends," Seto said rolling his eyes at her. She crossed her arms and sighed.

Then without any warning, Seto leaned in and kissed her on the lips. Penelope deepened the kiss and felt his fingers run through her hair while she ran a finger up and down the back of his neck, sending shivers down his spine for a change. It wasn't too long before Seto starting licking her bottom lip, demanding entrance. Penelope eagerly opened her mouth and moaned when their tongues came in contact with one another.

The air between them was warming up fast as Seto's lips broke away from hers and slowly started to trail down to her neck. She moaned again when his lips came in contact just below her earlobe and felt his lips form into a smirk as he continued to kiss her neck.

There was still tension between them after they let themselves go like this. It was undeniable. Seto Kaiba couldn't deny the fact that he wanted Penelope more than ever…but they were in a car…in her driveway-and anyone could easily walk outside and find the two of them making out in his car.

Seto's lips parted from her neck and he kissed her lips once more before pulling away.

"We should do this again sometime," he said to her.

"Yeah. Do you want my number?" Seto and Penelope took out their phones and text messaged their phone numbers to each other.

He smiled and a feeling of longing and a bit of sadness overcame him when she left his car and headed back into her house. She had only been gone for a minute, but he missed her already.

* * *

Well, there you have it. Seto was a little OOC for this chapter, but I'll try to make up for it in the next few chapters. They are dating, but no one at school knows yet. Everyone still thinks they hate each other (except for Yami Bakura and maybe Stephanie and Tea).

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to review...it would make me super super happy if you actually took your time to do it! :)


	16. Foul Play

**Chapter Sixteen: Foul Play**

Penelope sat in her room at 11:30 at night, slowly tying up her sneakers that she wore to tryouts earlier today. Her boots would only slow her down. After getting dressed in shorts, a t-shirt and a black sweatshirt, she opened the window and grabbed onto the latticework that was on the side of the house, hoping that all the vines would help her make her way down to the ground without getting hurt. Once she was close enough to the ground, she jumped down and landed softly onto the grass. She made her way around the house and ran down the street to Domino bridge.

'Hopefully I can make in time…before he controls me.'

In about ten minutes she was already at the bridge. There was light traffic going across the four-lane bridge. She walked over to the edge and looked down into the water.

'I hope it isn't under there,' she thought to herself. 'Because I can't swim that well…'

Penelope stood there silent for a minute or two, trying to remember exactly where the item was.

'It's under the bridge…It's not in the water…'

It was _underneath _the bridge.

A sick feeling formed in her stomach as to how she would have to get the scales. Penelope made her way to the end of the bridge and started climbing down the ladder that was built into the concrete wall that held the weight of the bridge. Halfway down the ladder she turned around and could see a glint of gold directly under the bridge.

'How the hell am I supposed to get up there?' There were some wires under the bridge, but they wouldn't be strong enough to hold her up, and the beams looked too big for her to be able to hang on to. She climbed back to the top of the ladder and decided that hanging on from the side of the bridge would be her best bet. She managed to leap to the beam and held onto it for dear life, praying she wouldn't fall onto the cliff below. That was when her watch alarm went off and she looked up at her wrist to see that it was now midnight.

'Crap. He's going to be angry now,' she thought to herself. She started inching along the side of the bridge towards the middle, praying that she wouldn't fall. Right before she got a quarter of the way over-a strange sensation took over and suddenly she found herself swinging from beam to beam.

Bakura had full control of her mind! If he wanted to kill her, he could very well do it now. She made it to the middle of the bridge and saw that the scales were tied to the bottom of the bridge, for reasons unknown to her.

Next thing she knew, she was using the wires and the beams to claw her way over to the scales. She could feel her hands clasp around the cold metal and as soon as she grabbed the scales, she felt herself drop.

'Fuck!' was her last thought as she fell thirty feet down into the river below. The water was cold and stung like a thousand knives against her skin. She kicked like crazy until her head was above water. Penelope took a huge breath of air before she felt herself go under the water again.

For the next several minutes it was a constant battle of trying to stay above water as the river carried her downstream. She continued to kick and paddle with her one free hand until she was close enough to shore and grabbed a hold of a large rock with her free hand. The other hand clutched the scales for dear life. If she let go of them, she would never be able to find them again-especially all the hard work she went through to get them. She tossed the scales onto the rocks and hoisted herself until she toppled onto the rock, panting from exhaustion. A faint clapping noise was heard in the distance and slowly got louder.

At the top of the bank stood Bakura, applauding her efforts with his evil sarcastic look upon his face.

"Well done. I knew that mind control would work on you."

Penelope climbed up the bank until she was face to face with Bakura.

"Alright. I got the scales." She handed them to him and he grinned wickedly as he took them in his hands. His eyes went over the scales and he examined them with a calculating eye.

"You passed the first test," he said.

"Test? What test?" she said angrily. "I nearly died!"

"I placed the scales there on purpose and made you get them for me. Now we can move on to the next item."

"What the hell? Are you trying to kill me?" she screamed. Bakura slapped her and she instantly stopped speaking.

"How dare you speak to me in that manner! Now, if you would please Aphrodite, I need you to find the location of the next item."

Penelope nodded nervously and closed her eyes. She saw a golden necklace with the same eye as the other items. Then she saw an Egyptian woman with green eyes, golden skin and long black hair walking off an airplane. Around her neck was the millennium necklace.

"Well? What is it that you see?"

"I see a woman…an Egyptian woman, wearing the millennium necklace, and she's getting off a plane."

"Hmph. Ishizu must have found out about Marik. Well then, I've got a good plan. You're going to become a new friend to Miss Ishtar, and then when she least expects it, you'll take the necklace from her."

"But…do you think that is good idea if the necklace can help her see the future? What if she already knows you're after the necklace?"

"Then figure it out!" he snapped. "I don't care what sort of means you must go through to retrieve the necklace. And if you don't retrieve it, then I will not hesitate to kill you."

A huge sickly feeling took over Penelope's body. She didn't know what to say or do now.

Bakura was controlling her and there was nothing she could do to save herself without getting herself or her friends killed.

"Now, if you will excuse me. I must be going. I am giving you one week to retrieve the necklace from Ishizu."

Bakura vanished and Penelope fell to her knees and started to cry.

* * *

"Who wants to come with me to the arcade after school?" Yugi asked.

"Sorry Yugi, Tristan and I got detention after school."

"What did you do?" Tea asked him.

"Well…we uh…"

"Joey and I got in trouble for having a clay fight in art class. Now we're stuck until four o'clock with old Mrs. Jenkins cleaning out old jars and trash bins."

"Ouch. Well, how about you Tea?"

"I really want to Yugi, but I've got cheerleading practice."

"No new girls yet?" Penelope asked.

"No. The coach said they won't be ready until this Thursday."

"So tomorrow then," she said.

"I heard you tried out. Good luck to you," Tea said.

"Thanks," Penelope said. She was exhausted from last night, but when her friends asked she said she stayed up late studying.

"Did you want to come with me to the arcade?" Yugi asked Penelope.

"Yeah. I do. Is it okay if I invite Stephanie too?"

"That would be great if you did!"

"Good. Because she wants to kick your ass at DDR. She's been telling me about it all week."

Yugi was taken slightly aback by her comment and smiled.

"Well, it's on then. I can't wait."

Seto sat in his little corner by himself, listening to Penelope's plans to hang out with Yugi and her friend.

'Well then, maybe I should stop by and see her,' he thought smugly to himself.

* * *

"Okay! Who is ready to challenge me to DDR!" Stephanie got into the game platform, dressed in acid washed jeans, red sneakers, a thick gold chain and a gray shirt that said, "Free Weezy" on it. With the exception of her spiky hair, she looked like she walked out of a time warp from the 1980's.

Penelope and Yugi looked at each other, and Yugi decided to go first.

"You'd better watch out, I've had a lot of practice," Yugi said in a deeper voice.

"Whoa. Did you just hit puberty or something?" Stephanie said.

"No. I am Yami. I'm an ancient Egyptian spirit trapped in Yugi's body."

"No really. Who are you?"

"Steph, he's not faking. Remember when we watched Yugi in Battle City last spring?"

"Oh yeah! Nice to meet you Yami! Ready to loose?"

"I never loose," he said smirking. The game started and Yugi and Stephanie immediately went to expert level and picked a really fast Japanese techno tune to dance to.

Penelope watched with awe as her two friends moved with such speed and grace (even though it was _just_ a video game) that she didn't even bother to notice that Seto Kaiba was standing near the pinball machine about twenty feet behind her, also watching with interest…but he wasn't exactly paying attention.

He was too busy looking at her. She had on her black leather jacket, black boots and a blue flowery dress with black legging on underneath. Her hair was down in those carefree curls; just the way he liked it. Occasionally she would fiddle around with the silver charm bracelets on her wrist, pick at her chipping blue nail polish and then back to Yami and Stephanie again.

It wasn't until after the third song that Yami managed to finally break the tie and beat Stephanie by a mere twenty-five points. Seto watched with interest as Penelope challenged Yami and came nowhere near to beating him at DDR.

"Whatcha doing big brother?" Mokuba said briefly turning his attention away from the prize grabber machine.

"Nothing. Did you want to play skee-ball or something?"

"Nah. That game's boring. I think you should go and ask Penelope to challenge you to a game." Seto rolled his eyes and sighed. He didn't want Penelope to know he was here. All he wanted to do was spend an afternoon with his younger brother at the arcade. Penelope, Stephanie and Yami (now back to Yugi) went over to the Guitar Hero booth and started playing a couple rounds of that.

Mokuba was now playing Hungry-Hungry Hippos with some other kids his age so Seto decided to break away for a moment and head to the other end of the arcade to play pinball. There were pinball machines all over the arcade, but this one was special because it had a dragons in it. There was also a castle, a knight and a princess, but he didn't care so much about that.

When he was young (and when his parents were alive) his father used to take him to the arcade where they would play a pinball game just like this. It always brought back memories of his early childhood when his real parents were still alive. Sometimes he envied everyone else his age because they actually had parents and not a huge company to run.

Seto put a couple quarters in the machine and started playing; practically hypnotized by the silver ball and trying so hard to keep it from falling into the pit below. He managed to get the ball through all the gadgets several times in a row before the board started blinking like crazy saying he got the high score (not a surprise, he was Seto Kaiba after all) again.

Then he heard clapping. He turned around and saw Penelope leaning up against the back of the chair to the racing game. Instantly he was mesmerized at the mere sight of her in that tight dress that showed off her curves and her lips on that lollipop she was eating. It was making him have some very naughty thoughts that were becoming more and more to stop each day.

"Please tell me the geek squad hasn't followed you," he said referring to Yugi and Stephanie. He didn't know Stephanie at all. Hell, he was surprised he even remembered her name. But he did know that Wheeler was smitten over her and assumed she was probably just as annoying as the rest of the lot was.

"My _friends_," she began "are currently playing Hungry-Hungry Hippos with your little brother. I knew you would be here since you probably wouldn't let a twelve year-old wander around this city by himself."

Little did they know that Yugi, Stephanie and Mokuba were all listening to their conversation from behind the fortune teller.

Yugi sighed internally at every comment while Stephanie tried to resist the temptation of smacking the back of Kaiba's head. Mokuba kept quiet, internally smirking. There was obvious tension between them. Yugi and Yami were both starting to notice too. At school they bickered to no end. Stephanie on the other hand was very skeptical about the idea of her best friend and the rich CEO together. Even though she and Tea saw them make out, all she could see that Kaiba was a jerk and probably wanted to get laid like Matt did.

"Oh good job," he said sarcastically. "You must have everything figured out, don't you?"

'Great, now he's teasing me and being a douche bag. Shocker.'

"Did you follow me here or something?"

"No. You don't know everything," he said. "I actually came here to spend time with my brother."

"I'm sure you did," she said. "I find that hard to believe since your eyes keep wandering downward when you think I haven't noticed."

'Damn,' he thought. 'She _is _onto me.'

"You really think I would do that?" he said. "Please. I have better taste than that."

Penelope rolled her eyes.

"And," Seto continued. "I'm pretty sure you've been checking me out lately too."

"As if!" He smirked and moved in on Penelope until she was up against the wall next to the pinball machine. He leaned in closer and felt his breath against her ear.

"We're being watched."

"I know," she said in a quiet whisper.

"Let's give them a show," he said. Penelope raised an eyebrow with curiosity. Seto's eyes shifted to the fortune teller and looked Yugi and the others directly in the eye and smirked. Then he turned back to Penelope and kissed her on the lips. Seto and Penelope parted after that short kiss and both of them turned to the fortune teller machine.

"Mokuba, you can come out now."

"I was right! I knew it! You do like her!"

Yugi and Stephanie were confused.

"So what is going on?" she asked them. "I thought you guys hated each other."

"For a second there, I did too," said Yugi.

"I don't think they ever did," Mokuba said. "Because I saw them together at the Riverboat tournament. Seto was on top of Penelope and they were on the table and-"

"Mokuba. That's enough," he said. "That is nothing they need to know."

Penelope blushed and then regained her composure.

"Damn. I didn't think anyone saw us besides Ba-" she stopped suddenly. "Barnaby…the chef that works for my parent's restaurant. Anyway…does anyone want to go get something to eat?"

"I sure do!" Mokuba said. "Seto never lets me have ice cream."

"Mokuba, do you know how much sugar is in ice cream, or what it does to your teeth?"

"What? I haven't had any cavities filled in three months. You should be proud."

Seto sighed and followed the rest of the group outside and across the street to a small fast-food place.

'She was lying. It was Bakura...she still hasn't told me about him yet...I wonder why.'

* * *

Phew! Another very long chapter. I am having a hard time writing and need to stop dragging the story on. (At least I hope I'm not doing that). Anyway, I'm possibly looking at 30 chapters for the story. Hopefully more towards 25. I don't want it to get too long. But if it did it would be the longest story I have written in a while (a huge accomplishment for me!)

So in the mean time, please review or even present your idea on how Penelope will get the items for Bakura, or trick him, or something...anything just to help get this moving faster would be helpful.

Thank you for reading. (And see that button below that says "Review Chapter?" Why don't you just give it a click. Come on...you know you want to...:)


	17. Some Things Are Better Kept Secret

**Chapter Seventeen: Some Things are Better Kept Secret**

"Steph, tell everyone about the time we met," Penelope said trying to hold back giggles.

"What's so funny about that?" Seto said with his arms crossed.

"It was in kindergarten," she said. "We were in the same class and I sat down in a seat which ended up being Penelope's."

"How did you manage that?" Yugi asked.

"I couldn't read yet," she said. "I was having a hard time, but I knew that my name had an "e" on the end, so I assumed it was mine. Next thing I know Penelope pushed me off the chair and insisted it was hers. Then we were having a yelling match in front of the entire class and the teacher had to separate us."

"Wow. So did you guys fight a lot?" Yugi asked.

"Sure did," Penelope said. "We fought over the stupidest things. The kickball, the letter friends, pencils, who finished their work first, everything."

"I guess we stopped fighting one day when some boy stole Penelope's hair clips. She accused me of taking them, so I proved to her that I didn't by beating up the kid who did.""And you had to stand on the wall for three weeks," Penelope said.

"And you stood right there with me the entire time," Stephanie said. "That's why I love you!"

The girls laughed for a minute or two and then Penelope had to get up to throw out her ice cream dish. Seto suddenly decided to do the same, as it would be a perfect opportunity to question Penelope about the incident in the dining room.

"Seto, why are you following me she said turning around."

"I need to ask you something, and please be honest with me."

"Okay…what is it?"

Seto paused for a moment and made sure no one else was around to hear them.

"What did Bakura do to you after he captured you?"

Penelope hesitated, but Seto knew she was going to lie to him already.

"He took me to this old tomb…and he wanted to keep me there…but I escaped."

"How?"

"I beat him in a duel, so he let me go."

"And that's it?" He said crossing his arms and staring her down. "For some reason I don't feel like you're giving me the whole story."

"I can't."

"What do you mean, "you can't?"

Penelope looked down towards the floor, hoping that she wouldn't start crying. If she told Seto, then Bakura would kill him-plain and simple.

"Seto, I can't tell you because if I do, Bakura will kill you. His secret is mine to keep and I can't risk anyone getting hurt because of me."

Seto sighed with frustration.

"I wish you would tell me what he said. I could help you, and I'm sure Yugi and his geeky friends would help you too."

"I'm sorry Seto. I can't let anyone get hurt." Seto placed a hand on her shoulder and looked down at her with concern.

"Has he hurt you?"

She shook her head.

"Good. Because if he lays a hand on you, I am going to take matters into my own hands."

Penelope couldn't imagine what that would involve. He would most likely hire some thugs to beat the crap out of him, or have the police put him behind bars-but that wouldn't contain the evil spirit that lives in side Bakura's millennium ring. She could tell Seto about the millennium items, but he didn't seem like the type to believe in that sort of thing.

"It's okay. I'll handle this on my own."

"It's not okay. What if he kills you?"

"I don't know. That's what I'm trying to avoid. Can we please not talk about this anymore? I don't want him to find out."

Seto nodded and kissed her forehead before heading back to the table. She felt guilty for not telling him-probably exactly what he wanted her to feel. But she could not deceive Bakura or else…

* * *

Ishizu Ishtar was escorted out of the hotel lobby and into a sleek black limousine. She was still in grief, but she did not want anyone to see it upon her face. If it was one thing Ishizu was good at, it was hiding her emotions.

Somehow Marik had gotten killed and the millennium rod had been stolen by a thief.

Now she would have to set things straight by finding the thief and taking back the millennium rod and having his soul sent to the shadow realm. At least, that was her plan.

The first thing she did was dial the number to Yugi Moto's game shop hoping that the Pharaoh would be able to help her.

"Kame Turtle Game Shop? How can I help you?"

"Solomon? This is Ishizu Ishtar. Is your grandson there?"

"No he isn't. He's currently out with his friends. Would you like me to leave a message for him?"

"Yes. Please have your grandson call me as soon as possible. Its urgent."

"Of course. I'll have Yugi call you as soon as he gets home."

"Thank you." Ishizu hung up, leaving Solomon to wonder what she wanted to talk about with Yugi.

'Ah well. I'm sure it's nothing I need to concern myself with.' Solomon hung up the phone and went back to organizing the display case near the counter.

About a half hour later Yugi entered through the doors of the game shop and greeted his grandfather.

"Ah, hello Yugi. How was your day at school?"

"It was okay. But after school I went to hang out with Penelope, Stephanie, Kaiba and Mokuba. We went to the arcade and I beat Stephanie at DDR."

"Sounds like you had a good day then. You got a phone call while you were out. I believe it was Ishizu that called you.

"Ishizu Ishtar? Really? I wonder what she could want?"

"She wants you to call as soon as possible." Yugi nodded and headed upstairs to his room to use the trac-phone that was in his backpack. He quickly dialed the number that his grandfather left him next to the phone earlier.

"Hello?"

"Ishizu?"

"Yugi! I am so glad that you have called. My millennium necklace foresaw that you would."

"Yeah. Anyway, why did you call?"

"I am currently in Domino City right now and I wish to meet with you as soon as possible."

"Well, I have homework tonight, but is tomorrow after school okay?"

"Yes. If that is when you can meet me, than it is fine."

"Good. See you then Ishizu."

"Goodbye Yugi." They both hung up and Yugi spent all night wondering why Ishizu was here, what she wanted and why she needed to see him.

* * *

"Oh my god!" Natalie was jumping up and down and screaming with excitement the moment she saw the results for the auditions.

"I can't believe it! I got in! I got in!" Penelope rolled her eyes as she watched her twin jump and down with the popular girls in front of everyone. As soon as they left, Penelope and her friends went over to the postings to see if she got in.

Joey, Tristan, Tea and Yugi waited a minute as Penelope tried to comprehend the results. Then she turned to them and sighed.

"What happened?" Tristan asked. "Did you not make it?" Penelope's sad expression slowly changed to a happy one.

"Even worse…I made it!"

"Yes! I am so happy for you!" Tea said cheering like a fan girl. Soon all five of them were jumping up and down in the halls like a bunch of giddy elementary school kids would when they had extra recess.

"What are you geeks screaming about now?" said an authoritative voice. "Did Wheeler finally get neutered?"

Penelope turned around and saw Seto standing in the hallway, clearly unimpressed.

"Isn't there somewhere you should be?" Penelope said.

"Come to think of it, there is. I was currently getting to a place away from dogs like Wheeler and the rest of you nerds." Seto walked past them and on his way looked at Penelope and bent down to whisper something in her ear.

"I can't wait to see how hot you'll look in your new uniform." His comment left Penelope very red in the face and she prayed that her friends didn't hear what he said.

"What did he say to you?" Joey said. "Because I can kick his ass for you if you want…"

"That won't be necessary," Penelope said. "Trust me."

"Then what did he say to you then?" Tristan said with curiosity.

"Guys, don't put her on the spot like that," Yugi said. Out of Penelope's friends, Yugi was the only one who knew about her relationship with Kaiba, and would probably be the most understanding out of the group. "I think that whatever Kaiba said to her was probably not meant for us to hear."

"Well it better not be anything dirty. That guy has a reputation for being like that."

"Yeah. He hooked up with this girl he met in England," Tristan said. "I think her name was Kisara or something."

"And how did you find this out?" Tea asked.

"I heard it from Duke who heard it from Pegasus who heard it from Kaiba himself. He bragged quite a bit after he got laid."

Penelope was not surprised that he wasn't a virgin. He certainly didn't behave like one during the tournament. But the thought of him being with someone else gave her an uneasy feeling.

What if he had been with other girls he never even told her about? Has he cheated on anyone?

Most of important of all: Why didn't he tell her this sooner when she opened up to him about her ex?

* * *

"Mr. Kaiba, all the preparations have been made for this meeting. Is there anything else I can get you?"

"No. That will be all." Seto got up from his desk wearing his white business suit with a blue tie. He left his office and went straight to another meeting where he would listen to his staff drone on about weekly profits.

'I don't give a damn! I already know that my company is successful,' he thought sourly during the meeting.

Then finally he was able to get up and share his new duel disk. It was much more lightweight than the previous model and the holograms were much more realistic. The entire room ate it up like candy, knowing they would make a fortune off of his idea.

"Alright. If anyone doesn't have any new business, then I would like to bring up a new idea I have been working on."

'Not another one,' one of the staff members said sighing. 'He's already got us working to the bone already on his duel disks…'

"I am currently in the process of making some negotiations of getting Fulton's Crab house to open a buffet in Kaiba land. And if that goes well, I want to expand the arcade and add the new virtual game I have been working on to the gaming area." Seto paused for a moment. "Well, if no one had any new business then we will bring this meeting to a close."

Seto promptly left the room and his Blackberry that he kept in his pocket started to ring.

"Who is it?" he said roughly.

"This is Ishizu Ishtar. I am currently at the Kame Turtle game shop and wish to speak with you. Meet me at the museum in one hour." Before Seto could respond Ishizu hung up on him.

"Damn her. What the hell could possibly be so damn important that I have to leave work?"

* * *

Penelope fell backwards onto her bed, completely exhausted from cheerleading practice. The coach really worked them to the bone and had Penelope teach the squad her dance routine. A lot of them struggled to keep up, but besides her sister and the popular girls, Tea seemed to be only one to really get it. Poor Serenity struggled during the lifts and as a result Natalie fell on top of her.

On top of practice she had to save up her money for the National Dueling tournament which would be coming up in two weeks.

'How am I going to be able to pay for it?' she asked herself. She would have to travel to the other end of the country to compete. And there weren't enough hours in the day for her to stay at her job now that she was cheerleading again.

'This sucks. I have no idea how I'm going to get there now. And on top of that I still haven't thought of a way to get the millennium necklace.'

Penelope thought really hard, going through her head which items she needed to get for Bakura.

'Puzzle, necklace, key…and he has the ring, eye, scales and rod…'

_The millennium rod has the power to control the minds of others…_

"That's it!" If Penelope could get the rod from Bakura, then she could use it to control the minds of others and give her the items without hurting them.

'But what if Bakura doesn't let me use it? Then what? Steal it?'

She definitely had a lot of thinking to do…

* * *

Hope you liked this chapter! Seto finally got to ask Penelope about Bakura, but what could Ishizu want with Seto and Yugi? And when will Seto come clean about his past? Will Penelope's secret plan suceed?

Well, I'm not telling you now, so you'll have to wait until next time. Thank you and please review :)


	18. Dangerous

**Chapter Eighteen: Dangerous**

Somehow Penelope had made it. She was standing in the bedroom of Ryou Bakura's apartment while he was fast asleep. The millennium rod was nowhere to be found anywhere in his room. She then made her way to the living room and dug for about ten minutes through old cases until she found the rod at the bottom of a large crate full of magazines and old records.

At school it wasn't hard to distract Bakura with her charm while she stole the key out of his back pocket, nor was it any harder to have her brother make a copy and use it to break into Bakura's apartment in the middle of the night. Yami Bakura could appear at will, but he wouldn't dare show his face at school in front of everyone.

She now had possession of the rod in her hands and could hopefully use it to control Bakura's mind if he woke up and tried to murder her…if it was Yami that woke up. If Bakura woke up then she would be in a mess of trouble. He would surely freak out, especially after she hit on him at school earlier that day.

Penelope made it to the door and quietly closed it behind her-as to not disturb Bakura or anyone else on the floor. It wasn't until she made it out of the building that she could breathe without worry as she ran back to her house and snuck in through the backdoor and up the stairs to her room.

As soon as she was safe in her room, she sighed with relief and triumph and laid down on her bed that now donned a black and white checkered bedspread.

'Now I can use the rod to control others so I can get the necklace from Ishizu.'

Of course, if Yami Bakura found out that she stole the rod…there would be hell to pay. But from the way she saw it, by the time she got all the other times together for him, then maybe he wouldn't be so mad that she actually accomplished her mission. Penelope quickly changed out of her running shorts and sweatshirt and into a black tank top and black pajama pants with Hello Kitty on them. She laid back onto her bed and closed her eyes, slowly relaxing into a nice comfortable sleep…

A bright light engulfed the room and Penelope quickly shot up with fright as she saw a strange man come out from the floor. He was dressed in a white robe and a turban and had a strange Egyptian symbol around his neck.

'The millennium key…'

But she couldn't think straight right now…there was a strange man standing in the middle of her bedroom!

"Who are you and why are you in my house?" Penelope stammered.

"My name is Shadi and I am the protector of the millennium items, and of this key. And you, Penelope Fulton must stop what you are doing at once."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that Bakura is using you to fulfill his evil purpose of using the items to bring darkness to our world."

"Using me? Well I knew that. I know he's using my visions to find the items and is forcing me to take them away."

Shadi sighed and his face appeared indifferent.

"Perhaps we should take a journey and I can show you what will happen Bakura's plan succeeds?"

"Right now? But I have school tomorrow."

"I assure you this will not take long at all."

Shadi reached towards Penelope, and she reluctantly took his hand. Within a split second a huge white light consumed the room and they found themselves in an ancient underground tomb.

"Where are we?" she asked Shadi.

"We were in the Valley of the Kings where the resting place of the seven millennium items is located."

Shadi pointed out the tablet and Penelope saw the holes where seven millennium items fit into perfectly.

"These items were created by the Pharoah as tools to bring peace to Egypt. They say that whomever finds all seven items and places them here will either bring peace or destruction to our world. It seems that Bakura has chosen the latter and wishes to summon Zorc the Dark One and destroy the world as we know it."

"And where do I fit into all this? I was told I was someone named Aphrodite in a past life."

"You were a princess brought over here from the island of Crete and were supposed to marry the Pharoah. But it was the high-priest Seto that ended up falling in love with her instead."

"So I was in love with Seto in a past life too?"

"It seems that history does have a tendency to repeat itself."

The room began to spin suddenly, the colors blending together like a fast-spinning scrambler ride. Finally the colors stopped spinning and Shadi showed her a vision of the future. The earth was dark and desolate, buildings had crumbled and everyone was enslaved. Zorc had enslaved the entire human race while Bakura watched with delight, wearing a huge gold crown and watched as they marched through the streets of Domino City bound in chains.

"This is what will happen if you continue along the path you are on. Bakura will gain all seven items and you will no longer be in the picture."

"What do you mean by that?" she asked her."Because by the sound of your voice, I don't think it's good…is it?"

"I'm afraid not. Once Bakura has what he needs, he will dispose of you immediately."

"By what? Is he going to kill me?"

"Yes. But you have the power to fight back."

"I don't think the millennium rod will be able to stand up to him?"

"You don't think so?" Shadi brought them back to their world and they were standing back in Penelope's bedroom. "The millennium item will work for anyone who has intentions. As for whether they are good or evil, it doesn't matter. The items cannot differentiate between the two."

"I can use the millennium rod?"

"Yes. I hope that you use it to stop Bakura instead of doing his bidding. I don't think that Seto would want to loose you again."

"He's lost me before?"

"If you wish for more answers, visit the museum. I'm sure Ishizu might be there. She tends to enjoy visiting the Noveau Art exhibit. Until we meet again."

Shadi disappeared and Penelope was still standing in the same spot. She looked over at the millennium rod that was on her bed and decided that in order to protect the ones she loved, she needed to find a way to fight back.

* * *

_Earlier that day…_

Seto and Yugi arrived at the museum at the same time, both of them wondering why the other was there.

"Kaiba? What are you doing here?"

"That's what you should be telling me."

"Ishizu called me and asked me to meet her here."

"She called you too? What the hell could she possibly want?"

"I don't know," Yugi said as they entered the museum together. "But it sounds like something bad is going to happen if she came back this soon."

Seto said nothing as they walked through the museum and found Ishizu standing in front of the ancient stone table they each had met her in front of before Battle City last spring.

"Why have you interrupted me by making me come to this lame museum?" Seto began impatiently.

"I guess I'm just as confused as Kaiba is," Yugi said. "Why did you ask us to come here?"

Ishizu was quiet for a minute, and then a tear formed in her eye.

"My brother Marik was killed and someone has stolen the millennium rod."

"What?" Yugi was very shocked, while Seto remained indifferent. He was the psychopath who turned his tournament into a sideshow circus, and he never particularly liked the man anyway. But he did understand why she was upset. He would feel the same way if someone had taken Mokuba from him.

"Marik and I had returned to Egypt, but a dark presence entered our home and he ended up slaying Marik before my very eyes."

"Do you know who did it?" Yugi asked her.

"Yes…it was the one called Bakura. He seems to be possessed by an evil spirit that lives inside the millennium ring. But I'm sure that you already know that Yugi, considering the all the trouble he has put you through."

"Tell me about it."

Seto however, was not convinced.

"What the hell does a bi-polar nerd have to do with me! You know I don't believe in all this ancient magic crap."

"I am well aware of that Kaiba. I have asked you to come here because someone you love is in danger."

"It better not be Mokuba. Did those idiot rare hunters kidnap him again?"

"No. Mokuba is not in danger. But the girl you love is." Seto glared at her.

"Please Kaiba, allow me to explain everything." Yugi was eager to hear what she wanted to say. Seto grumbled and followed her closer to the giant stone tablet that supposedly showed him as a high priest in a past life.

She told them about how Bakura was after the seven millennium items (including Yugi's puzzle), how he's been manipulating Penelope to do his dirty work, and the role she played in their past lives while they were ancient Egyptians.

"You mean that Penelope was a Greek Princess and she was betrothed to Yami?"

"Yes."

"And she was in love with Kaiba?" Ishizu merely nodded.

Seto was very skeptical about everything Ishizu had told him. But why should he believe her? As far is it went, it was just a bunch of bullshit to him.

'The part about Penelope didn't sound so bad,' he thought. 'I always knew she would be perfect for me.' There was also the undeniable connection that they had, and the lurking sexual tension that had yet to be released. Seto couldn't wait for that day to come. He would show her no mercy.

"I need the two of you to help her. Yugi, you will need to guard the millennium puzzle even more closely than before. The necklace and the key will be safe. But as long as Bakura has the millennium rod, then it will be difficult for Penelope to fight back."

"This is ridiculous," Seto complained. "You're freaking about a bunch of old Egyptian relics."

"Really Kaiba? Do you understand what kind of power they have? What Bakura is doing to your girlfriend? He's using the items to manipulate her to get them for him. And if he gets them all…the world will be destroyed, and…"

"And what?" Seto said. "The Egyptian God cards will come to life too?"

"Once Bakura gets all seven items, or rather, Penelope does, he's going to dispose of her."

"How?" Seto said. "Send her to the shadow realm or some stupid hocus pocus?"

"Worse. Death. When he has what he needs, Penelope will not be of any use to him, so he will kill her. If he doesn't, then he won't be able to summon the dark forces."

"So he has to kill her? Is that what Bakura has to do?"

"In order to summon the darkness from the other dimension, he needs the blood of a royal. Penelope was a princess in a past life, so you put the pieces together."

Seto was outraged. He was finding it harder to not believe her stories, but the more he knew about Penelope's role in all this, the more he realized what he must do.

"I have to save her."

"What?" Yugi was a bit surprised at the CEO's words.

"I have to protect her. She's going to get herself killed if we don't do something."

"Kaiba, I know but I'm not quite sure what to do myself. I think we should meet with our friends first before we act." Seto paused for a moment and relaxed.

"Please stop Bakura before it's too late. You Yugi, and Kaiba are our only hopes. I bid you farewell for now, but I'm sure we will meet again soon."

Ishizu left the exhibit area and headed down the hall to view more artifacts from other places around the world.

"Well Yugi, do you have a plan? Because I don't."

"A plan? Right." Yugi took his phone out of his pocket and dialed Tea's number.

"Hello? Tea? Hi, it's Yugi. Can you, Tristan and Joey meet me at the park in twenty minutes? It's kind of important. Yeah, I'll see you then. Bye Tea."

"Let's get going," Seto said. "My driver can take us there."

Yugi nodded and the two teens left the museum and got into the car that drove off towards the park.

If anyone was going to save Penelope, it would be Seto Kaiba.

_No one is going to lay a hand on her, and I will make sure no harm comes to her…_

* * *

It was hard getting that chapter out, but I went along with the plot from season 5. I'm going to stop dragging the story on and finish it. I've never spent this long on a story before, so the results will be interesting. Also, the rating on this story is being moved up to M for safety (and for later scenes.)

In the mean time, I am working on another Root of All Evil story (A crossover of Beavis and Butt-head and Yu-Gi-Oh!) If you've read my previous Harry Potter/Twilight debate, then you will love the next one! :)

Thanks for reading, and please review :D


	19. The Library

Just a heads up before you read: This chapter contains some mature content (lime flavored-ish). Just warning you. Also, in case you haven't noticed, the rating on this story has been changed to M for later chapters.

* * *

**Chapter Nineteen: The Library**

Penelope was acting really strange today, at least, that's what Seto had noticed. She was very cranky, more than usual and she almost fell asleep in History. At lunch he decided to go and talk to her and see what was going on with her. But knowing that the whole school would suspect something, he decided to have Tea invite her to meet him in the library at lunch.

"I guess I can," Tea said.

"You guess you can? Do you remember what we discussed yesterday, Gardener?"

Tea hadn't forgotten. Yugi and Kaiba told her everything about the millennium items that they heard from Ishizu, and the imminent danger that Penelope had been in for who knows how long.

"I haven't forgotten. I'll tell her to meet you at lunch in the library."

"Good. Thank you."

"You're welcome," Tea said with a sigh.

During gym class Tea and Penelope were in the locker room getting changed for volleyball when Tea finally decided to ask her.

"So I was talking to Kaiba in the hall today," Tea began.

"What does he want now?" She asked her.

"He wants to know if you'll meet him in the library during lunch."

Penelope groaned. She was tired and didn't want to be bothered today, but knowing Seto and how persistent he always was, she knew that wouldn't happen.

"Fine. But you know I would rather crawl back into bed than see him."

"Yeah about that, did you not sleep well last night?"

"I couldn't because…I just couldn't sleep. I guess I had too much on my mind. And then there's my brother Ned."

"Is he home from college?"

"Unfortunately, yes. Ned, Natalie and Chris got me to fess up about Seto. So now my stupid older brother wants to spend the day with Seto."

"Doing what?"

"Who knows? Seto's not 18 so he can't sneak into a club, he doesn't party, doesn't drink, so Ned's going to have a very boring day with him."

What Penelope didn't know is that while Ned couldn't bring Seto to the party, he decided he would have to bring the party to Seto. He planned on making Seto watch hours upon hours of Family Guy and Beavis and Butt-head. And it wouldn't be a bad idea to steal some weed from Chris, as long as he paid him first. Then they would go out and Ned would show him some of the high school parties that he goes to find girls.

If Penelope found out she would be furious. Ned just wanted to welcome Seto Kaiba into the family was all, nothing more than that.

"So why did you have me come here?" Penelope asked Seto. They were both sitting at a table in the back of the library, near a quiet corner where no one would see them. The librarian was currently eating lunch in the back room, and said if they needed anything, all they had to do was ring the bell on the desk.

"I've noticed that you're very tired. Is everything okay?"

Penelope grumbled.

"I'm tired and I really just want to be left alone."

Seto sighed and looked at her with worry.

"I know about your little deal with Bakura."Penelope instantly shot up from her seat.

"What? How did you find out? I never told you anything!"

"I know. Apparently Ishizu knows."

"Shadi…he must have told her."

"Shadi? Who's that?" Seto demanded.

"He's the keeper of the millennium key. He came to visit me last night. After I…"

"After you what?"

Penelope had him wait a minute and she reached into her backpack and took out the millennium rod. Seto found himself drawn to it, for reasons he could not understand. It was weird, really. He never believed in ancient mythology or magical items, but he knew that there was something in that particular item that connected with him…like a feeling of déjà vu.

"How did you get that?"

Penelope quickly put it back in her bag.

"You cannot tell anyone I have it," she said. "And I didn't kill anyone for it."

"I never said you did. I'm guessing that you stole it from Bakura who killed Marik to get it?"

"He killed someone to get it?"

"Yeah. Marik was Ishizu's younger brother. She was so upset that she came to us and told us what Bakura was up to." Seto then told her everything that Ishizu told him and Yugi.

"Shadi pretty much told me the same thing. He even showed me what would happen if I helped Bakura's plan succeed. Bakura is planning on destroying the world, and we have to stop him."

"I know. You know, the more I talk to you about this, the more I start to believe that maybe Yugi's puzzle does have some weird powers…but then again, he could just be messing around."

Penelope rolled her eyes. Seto was probably never going to believe. Seto put the thought of Bakura destroying the world to the side and remembered that he was pretty much alone with Penelope right now.

'This would be a perfect opportunity,' he thought smugly to himself.

"Let's not worry about all this right now," Seto said. "If you come over here I know a way to make you feel better."

Penelope raised an eyebrow with interest.

"What exactly are you suggesting?"

Seto got up and went around a set of shelves and signaled her to follow.

Penelope got up and Seto grabbed her and pulled her into a passionate kiss. The way his lips moved over hers was like bliss. It was like they were meant to be together.

His hands that sat on her waist were now moving down to her hips. Her back came in contact with the bookshelf as their kiss deepened and Seto's tongue entered her mouth. She responded eagerly and moaned when one of his hands traveled up her pink blazer and came in contact with her bare skin.

Their bodies pressed up against each other as their kisses continued to be hot and steamy and felt so good that Penelope didn't realize that Seto's hand was sliding under her bra and feeling her bare breast. He was delighted when he felt the soft mound and massaged it gently in his hand. With his other hand he grabbed her leg and pulled her close so he pressed his hardened member between her legs.

With each second Penelope felt the pleasure intensifying as Seto thrust against her. She wanted so badly to continue, but she knew that it wasn't the right time yet. Seto pulled away and looked into her eyes.

"You have no idea how badly I want you right now."

Penelope quickly pulled away. They couldn't do this here, especially not in the school library!

"You want me to stop?"

"Yes," she said. "We shouldn't be doing this here."

Seto took his hand out from under her shirt and both of them took a moment to neaten out their rumpled clothes. He smirked at her and kissed her cheek. He was a little sexually frustrated, but he didn't let it show. The only problem now was that she had made him hard, and he liked it. But he knew it wouldn't be easy to make her his. She was still a bit guarded at times, and he would have to wait a while before she was ready.

The bell rang and Penelope and Seto went to go get their things.

"Well, I've gotta go. I'll see you later?" She asked him.

"Yes. How does this weekend sound?"

"It sounds good."

"Great. I'll be at your house on Saturday at eleven." Before Penelope could answer, Seto had already headed out of the library and up to his next class.

She was still in a bit of a daze after what had happened. It wasn't everyday that a guy asked to meet her in the school library and have a spontaneous makeout session in the non-fiction section. She gathered up her things and high-tailed it for her next class.

Seto on the other hand headed home to take care of some business. He needed to work on some documents for Kaiba Land, and take out some of the sexual frustration Penelope had left him with.

* * *

"This is going to be juiciest gossip since we told everyone that Bakura was gay," Massie said giggling.

"I know! It's going to be even better than Brangelina!" Taylor said. The other girls looked at her disapprovingly.

Angela and Katie had been in the library during lunch to look at some books for a project when they saw Seto and Penelope hidden behind one of the bookshelves, heavily making out with one another. Angela even swore that she saw Seto reach up her shirt, but they weren't too sure.

"Well girls, we definitely will have fun with this one," Katie said taking out her cell phone. She showed them the picture she had taken of Seto and Penelope kissing, and then sent it via picture message to nearly everyone on her contact list-which had about 200 people on it. Then Angela, Massie and Taylor did the same thing and sent the picture to all of their contacts as well.

By tomorrow, the entire school would know…and the press would have a field day.

* * *

It was dinner and Penelope sat quietly at the table while the rest of her family ate. Her mother had made lasagna tonight and her father was busy talking to a business partner over his cell phone. Natalie was picking at her food, not wanting to eat it. She didn't like meat, but her mother never seemed to get the hint. Chris and Ned were helping themselves to seconds and thirds when Ned looked over at Penelope.

"So when's your boyfriend coming over?"

Chris snorted, Natalie put down her fork and her mother stopped and stared at her.

"Boyfriend? When did this happen?"

"Just a couple of days ago," Ned began, "She left practice with some guy at school and then he brought her home and a huge smile was on her face when she walked through the door."

"Ned! Will you shut up?" Penelope said getting annoyed.

"Really? Now, who is this boy?" Ned was going to answer, but Penelope gave him a sharp glare that said, 'Don't even try' when Natalie spoke.

"She's dating Seto Kaiba."

Her father suddenly became anxious.

"Hey listen, I have to go. I will call you in the morning. No. The _morning_. Gotta go," and he hung up.

"Is my mind playing tricks on me, or did I just hear that my daughter is dating Seto Kaiba?"

Everyone looked at Penelope. She really hated it when people put her on the spot like this. It was rather irritating.

"Yeah, we're kind of seeing each other."

"Seeing each other? What does that mean these day?" he asked. "I hope he hasn't been seeing things he shouldn't be."

"Thomas, relax. It's just the kids way of saying they're dating. Right?"

"Yes. We went to the mall to get ice cream and then we hung out in the park together."

Thomas Fulton was a little less tense, but this was _Seto Kaiba_, the same young man who was a link between saving his business and letting it go under.

_He was a bit hesitant of signing the contract to open a restaurant in Kaiba Land and let it be filled full of kids playing duel monsters and video games, but that restaurant would make him a fortune if he agreed…which he did. Seto Kaiba was pretty pleased but like all businessmen, he wanted something in return. _

"_I will gladly open up a spot in Kaiba Land for your restaurant, but I want something in return." _

_"What is it that you want, Mr. Kaiba?" _

"_You know I own one of the most successful companies in the country, but as you know, it's nothing unless you have someone to share it with." _

"_Yes, I do understand that." _

"_For a while it's just been my brother and I running the company, but I need someone else to share it with." T_

_homas Fulton simply nodded in agreement. _

_"That's why I would like you to allow one of your daughters to marry me." _

"_Marry you?" _

"_Yes. It would do both our companies very well if our families were united. And it would make me very happy that I would have someone to share it with." _

_Thomas was a little nervous about this. He wasn't quite sure what Seto would see in either of his daughters. One of them pranced around all day in mini-skirts, maxed out the credit card he gave her, and totaled one of his cars. And his other daughter? Forget it! She was stuck in some weird twisted dark phase and spent all her time playing children's card games, listening to ear-splitting music and scaring the daylights out of his relatives with her black costumes that she called "outfits." _

"_Fine then. But you may only marry one of my daughters when the time is right."_

_"And when is that?"_

_"When I say so." _

"Dad? Are you okay?" Penelope looked a little worried, and had a feeling that her dad didn't seem to excited that she was dating.

"Yes. I'm fine. Now, since you're seeing this young man, when does he plan on meeting us?"

"He's coming over this weekend, tomorrow to be exact."

Her mother raised an eyebrow. She knew what this meant. Tomorrow she would spend all day in the kitchen cooking.

"I'd better start making that green-bean casserole then," she said excusing herself from the table. "After all, it's not everyday that we have Seto Kaiba in our home."

Chris was quiet the whole time. He had devoured his third plate of lasagna and let out a loud belch.

"Christopher Ethan Fulton! Please excuse yourself when you're at this table!" his father said with disapproval.

"Sorry. That lasagna was pretty good. Is there anymore left?"

"You ate three helpings already you pig!" Natalie shouted. She still hadn't touched much of her food. Chris was eyeing it with interest.

"Are you gonna eat that?" She sighed and pushed her plate across the table towards him. As soon as he touched the plate, he grabbed his fork and knife and started devouring the half eaten lasagna.

'He's got the munchies again,' Penelope thought. 'Shocker.'

* * *

Seto finished the last of his paperwork and headed upstairs from his downstairs home office and up to his room. On the way he ran into Mokuba who had just come out of the bathroom after brushing his teeth for bed.

"Hey big brother. How was your day?"

Seto looked back on today. Other than the fact that he nearly got to second base with Penelope in the library, school was rather uneventful. Not to mention that he cut class that afternoon.

"It was fine. By the way, tomorrow we're going out."

"Really? Where?"

"Penelope's house. I'm meeting her tomorrow and I think you should come with me to meet her family."

"Really? I can't wait!"

Seto smiled and headed off to bed. That night all he dreamed of was being with Penelope.

* * *

I hope you enjoyed this chapter. The rating of this story will now stay at M (I should've done this after chapter 10, but didn't). While you're waiting for the next chapter (when Seto meets Penelope's family) feel free to review.

Thank you! :)


	20. Nothing Like Friends

**Chapter Twenty: Nothing Like Friends **

"Natalie! Stop it!" Penelope swatted her sister's hand off her shoulder. "I can dress myself, thanks."

"But don't you want to look good for your man? After all, this is Seto Kaiba we are talking about."

"I am not wearing that!" she said pointing to the tiny maroon dress that Natalie was holding up. It was so short it barely qualified as a dress, and there was no way she would wear that in front of her parents or her boyfriend!

"Fine. What about the orange one?" she asked.

"No thanks. I'm going back to my room where I will gladly choose my own outfit." Natalie sighed. She was trying to make her cute, but Penelope was too stubborn. But all she wanted was to be herself for a change, even if it did mean head-to-toe black. She found a nice black sweater in her closet that had a nice v-neck and a cute red-plaid skirt that wasn't too short. It was a few inches above her knees and showed off her long legs very nicely.

After getting dressed she heard the doorbell ring and quickly put on a pair of black heels and headed downstairs to answer the door, but Chris had already beat her to it.

"Yo man, what up?" Chris was standing there in ripped jeans, a hoodie and old sneakers and there stood Seto Kaiba dressed in a button down and jeans. Mokuba stood behind him dressed as he always was, a huge smile spread across his face as he saw Penelope coming down the stairs.

'Wow, she's pretty. Seto definitely picked a good one,' he thought to himself.

"Who are you exactly?" Seto was a bit surprised that this boy lived here in such a nice house considering he looked like he had just rolled out of bed.

"Chris, stop harassing people when you answer the door please," Penelope said pushing her younger brother aside. She then realized that Seto was standing in the doorway and a faint blush spread across her face.

'Wow. He looks so hot right now,' she thought. Seto gave her his signature smirk thinking the same thing about her. Even though she was dressed in black, at least she was being somewhat herself today. She skipped her dark lipstick today but didn't skimp on the dark eye makeup. He thought she looked better without it, but it did bring out her turquoise eyes.

Not long after Natalie came down the stairs in a super-tight, super short pink dress and very high heels.

Ned came out of the living room dressed in his usual fraternity sweatshirt and raised an eyebrow with concern when he saw his sister.

"What the hell are you wearing?"

"Paris Hilton," she said. "Isn't it so cute?" she said showing off her dress.

"You look like a streetwalker," Ned said. Chris was nodding in agreement.

"Well excuse me! At least I'm not dressed like I rolled out of bed!" she said referring to the way her brothers were dressed.

"Come on in," Penelope said. "Enter at your own risk."

"Don't mind if we do. I hope you don't mind, but I decided to bring my brother Mokuba along too."

"That's fine." Mokuba entered the house and smiled up at Penelope.

"Hi Penelope. It's nice to finally meet you in person. My brother has been telling me all about you."

"Really?" she said. "What does he say about me?"

Her eyes went to Seto and for the first time in a while, he actually appeared taken aback by her comment.

"Well I…"

Just then Mr. and Mrs. Fulton came out of the kitchen.

"Why hello there!" Mrs. Fulton smiled at Seto and Mokuba. "I'm Penelope's mother, but you can call me Margaret. It's nice to finally meet you."

Seto reached out and they shook hands.

"It's nice to meet you too," he said politely. Penelope's dad was a bit more skeptical, but still shook hands with the boy anyway.

"It's good to see you again," he said. "And you must be his brother?"

"Yeah! My big brother and I are very happy to meet all of you guys."

"Aw, how sweet. How would you like to come and help me in the kitchen for a little bit?"

"Sure!" Mokuba eagerly followed Mrs. Fulton into the kitchen while Seto and Penelope headed to the living room.

Mr. Fulton then looked at the rest of his children with disgust.

"And just what do the three of you think you're doing all dressed like that?"

They were currently in mid-argument, but stopped suddenly. "Now, we have company today and I expect everyone to look sharp, not just Penelope."

"But daddy! It's Paris Hilton!" Natalie whined.

"I don't care what it is! You need to change. Ned, Chris, why don't you go upstairs and make yourselves look presentable for a change. I will not have my family making fools of themselves in front of Seto Kaiba."

The three teens groaned and all headed upstairs to change.

About fifteen minutes later the boys came down in slacks and button downs, while Natalie came down in a dress that was much more appropriate than the previous one.

The siblings found Penelope and Seto sitting in the living room with their father, everyone very awkward and quiet as he read the newspaper.

Not much earlier, Mr. Fulton had taken Seto aside and asked him what intentions he had with his daughter. That was very rigorous and grueling, and afterward he could hardly look at his girlfriend's father. It was clear he didn't like him, and he didn't really want Seto with his daughter.

"So why is everyone so quiet?" Natalie asked.

Penelope got up and whispered in her sister's ear, "I think dad is trying to scare him." Natalie nodded.

"How about we go hang out in the game room," she suggested. Everyone left the room except for Mr. Fulton and they headed downstairs to the finished basement that had been made into a game room. There was a pool table, a Foosball table, a large TV with a game system and a stereo in the back corner of the room.

"Hey Kaiba, wanna play a game of pool?" Ned said taking a pool-stick off the wall.

"Sure," he said. Seto took a pool-stick for himself and Ned set up the game. Penelope decided to play with her brother and sister.

"Yes! I love Mario Party!" Natalie said laughing. Penelope was also cheering as the game started. She couldn't wait to beat her.

Chris sat on the couch holding his controller, appearing either stoic or stoned. Seto couldn't tell which it was. He brought his attention back to the pool game at hand. Ned decided to break first and already got one of the solids into the corner pocket.

"So Seto, since you're now officially dating my sister, we're going to have to have some quality bro time!"

Seto looked at him awkwardly. He didn't want to spend time with Ned, nor did he want to be his bro.

During the entire match Ned told stories about college. His fraternity, the girls he's hooked up with, and his wild nights of partying instead of studying. Seto suspected he was trying to make conversation, but it wasn't very good conversation. It was obvious they had very little in common.

He only had one ball left before the eight ball. Ned also had one. Seto aimed carefully at the fifteen ball and it bounced off the side of the table and went into the corner pocket. Then he aimed for the eight ball and it easily went into the side pocket.

Seto smirked.

"Looks like I win. But then again, I was once known as the king of games." Ned was a bit bewildered at that statement. He hadn't realized that Seto Kaiba had once held the title.

"Really? Wow. I had no idea. Well, not to brag or anything, but at my college I was known as the Party King."

Seto held back the urge not to roll his eyes at him. Ned then went on for about twenty minutes about how he "invented" a beer bong with three funnels, how his friend made a smokeless "bong" and some of his late nights out with his college buddies.

'I'm surprised he hasn't been kicked out yet,' Seto thought. 'What an idiot. I can't believe someone as smart and talented as Penelope is related to this loser.'

Just then Mokuba came downstairs wearing a bright green apron.

"Hey guys! Lunch is ready!" Everyone got up and ran past Mokuba and headed upstairs toward the kitchen, where a huge feast was on the table for them. Ned and Chris immediately dug in and started taking piles of food for themselves. Natalie only attacked the vegetables, the green bean casserole and the salad. She couldn't even look at the fried crawdads that were on the plate. Penelope on the other hand was enjoying each one and showing Seto and Mokuba how to eat them without making a huge mess.

_Ding Dong!_

"Oh my, who on earth could that be?" Penelope's mother said getting up from the table. She opened the door, and was surprised at who was there.

"Mom? Who's at the door?" Penelope called out. "Excuse me," she said to Seto.

"That's fine," he said helping himself to one of her mother's crab cakes.

She ran out of the kitchen and through the foyer to see that Stephanie was standing in the doorway.

"Steph! What brings you here?"

"You know I never miss a Saturday at your house," she said.

"I suppose I will head back to the kitchen," Mrs. Fulton said. "Don't be too long. The food will be gone soon."

After her mother left, Penelope and Stephanie were alone.

"So why are you really here?" Penelope asked her. Stephanie said nothing and simply handed Penelope her phone that had a clip of two teens heavily making out in a what appeared to be a library…her school's library.

'Wait a minute…isn't that?'

"Me and Seto…" she said. "But how? No one was in the library with us at the time."

"Apparently someone was," Stephanie said. "I'm so sorry."

Penelope said nothing as he friend hugged her tightly.

"Don't worry. Were going to find out who did this and set things right."

"Set what right?" Seto had appeared in the doorway and saw the two girls in hug. "Is something wrong?"

"Everyone knows about us now," Penelope said handing him Stephanie's phone. "Look."

Seto was shocked at what he saw, not to mention he was pissed. How dare someone intrude upon an intimate moment between him and Penelope? Whoever it was, they were going to pay…and dearly.

Seto calmly handed the phone back to Stephanie and took Penelope into his arms. He looked down at her and saw that there were tears in her turquoise eyes. It was rare she ever displayed any sign of sadness. It was at that moment he vowed he would find whoever filmed them and make them pay.

"It's going to be okay," he whispered. "We're going to get through this together. You have friends who aren't going to think any less of you."

"I know…but…it's going to be just like it was at my old school…"

"Penelope, it's going to be hard, but this time you don't just have me. You have Joey, Yugi, Tristan, Tea, Seto and Mokuba. We'll stick by your side no matter what happens."

Penelope tried to force a smile. Stephanie was right, but she didn't know what to think. Sure, her friends would be with her, but that won't stop the teasing that was sure to begin on Monday.

"Thank you," she said. "Hey, speaking of friends, I want you to call Yugi and the others. It's very important."

Stephanie nodded and sent Yugi a text message.

"Now let's go get some of those crab cakes before Ned and Chris eat them all," Penelope said leading her friends back into the kitchen.

* * *

Natalie had retired to her room, but she had heard a good chunk of her twin's conversation. Someone at school was trying to sabotage her. And Natalie knew of only one person who would dare stoop this low.

'Katie…she's been jealous of her since day one. And her friends tried to keep her off the squad.' It was true that Natalie had not been there for her sister in the past. When the kids teased and bullied her at school, she did nothing to stop them. She said nothing.

'I'm not going to be that person anymore. She's my sister and I need to help her!'

Natalie picked up her phone and called Monica, one of the other girls on the squad.

"Hello?"

"Hi Monica, this is Natalie. I need you to do me a favor."

"Sure? What is it?"

"Can you activate the phone tree. But don't call Katie, Massie, Taylor or Angela. It's time that we started a cheer mutiny."

She then explained what happened, even though Monica already had an idea about what went down-especially since she had received the racy video on her phone as well.

"No problem."

"Thanks Monica," and she hung up and placed her phone back onto the white nightstand next to her pink bed.

"It's payback time, bitches."

* * *

The lunch with Penelope's parents went fairly well. Stephanie got to have a couple of crab cakes before Ned and Chris ate them all. Even her father was impressed at how well-mannered and behaved he was. They even enjoyed Mokuba's cheerful demeanor and how kind he was.

"Well, it was very nice meeting you," Mrs. Fulton said to Seto as they headed towards the door.

"Likewise. Thank you for having us over."

"And we'll be in touch," Mr. Fulton said to Seto firmly shaking his hand.

Mokuba smiled and hugged each of Penelope's parents.

"I had a lot of fun here and it was very nice of you to let me help you cook!"

"You're welcome anytime, Mokuba."

Seto and Mokuba left the house and went outside to where Stephanie and Penelope were waiting in Stephanie's blue car. It looked older than she was and the paint had lost it's luster over the years, and the design looked very dated compared to Kaiba's sleek black Ferrari.

"What is that?" Seto said.

"It's my car. It's a 1972 Chevy Camaro. My dad fixed it and gave it to me when I was 12."

Seto skeptically eyed the car that to him looked like a piece of junk. But that piece of junk was once a very expensive car that if not driven around town constantly by Stephanie, would be worth almost as much as his Ferrari.

He got into his car and started it.

"Ready?" Stephanie called out. "Yes. Ready when you are."

"Sweet!" Mokuba said. "Does this mean I'm coming with you guys?"

"No," Seto said. "This concerns the millennium items and it's too dangerous for you to get involved. I'm bringing you home right now."

"Aw! Come on! I can help you guys!"

"Mokuba, I don't want Bakura coming after you too."

"You mean Bakura is taking the items?"

Seto sighed. He couldn't keep any more secrets from his brother.

"Bakura was using Penelope to get the items. She was told to keep it a secret or he would hurt her. But then Ishizu found out and told Yugi and I."

Mokuba looked at his brother with curiosity and he then he knew that Penelope meant a lot to him. Seto wouldn't go through this much trouble to protect her unless she truly meant something to him. Clearly she did.

He told his brother everything. About how Bakura used Penelope as a pawn, how important it was for him not to get all seven items, and how Penelope managed to take the millennium rod from Bakura. At least with the rod, they might have a chance. And then Ishizu and Yugi had their items, and someone else had another.

Bakura had three. They had four.

Penelope felt her cell phone vibrate in her jacket pocket. She had a new message.

_You have broken your promise. _

_Consider yourself dead. _

Penelope placed her phone back in her pocket and was horrified. Bakura knew that their secret had been let out, and he would make her pay dearly for it.

_Pay the price for your betrayal, your betrayal, _

_Your betrayal

* * *

_Hope you liked it! It looks like Natalie is actually being helpful for once. And what does Bakura plan on doing to Penelope?

Find out next time! :)


	21. Bittersweet

**Chapter Twenty-One: Bittersweet**

**Author's Note: There is a lime in this chapter...you have been warned...  
**

Later that day the group decided to meet at Yugi's place upstairs from his grandfather's game shop. Solomon greeted each of them with smiles.

Seto acknowledged the man, but didn't smile. He wasn't concerned with Yugi's grandfather. That would just be another person involved in a dangerous game he never wanted to play. Seto, Penelope, Mokuba and Stephanie sat down on one of the old couches while the rest of the group sat at a table that was in a small space that could have been the dining room.

"So, what's new with everyone?" Joey asked trying to break the silence.

"Not now, Joey," Tea said sighing. "We've got a bit of a crisis on our hands."

"Crisis? If you're talking about the video with money-bags and our Penelope, I already know about that. My sister got the message on her phone last night."

Tristan sighed and Tea smacked Joey upside the head.

"Not. That. One," she growled. "Yugi called us here because Bakura is plotting to kill everyone in this room."

"Oh yeah…now I remember. So Yugi, what's your plan for our friend Bakura?"

Yugi was pacing around the room and stopped.

"I don't know. All I know is that he wants my puzzle. We have to figure out a way to keep our items safe from Bakura…or try to get one of the items out of his control."

"What will happen when we get all seven?" Tristan asked.

"I don't know. But Ishizu said that something good is supposed to happen. But in order to do that, we would have to bring them to Egypt."

"EGYPT?" everyone said at once. No one had expected this.

"How the hell are we supposed to find the time to go there?" Seto said annoyed. "You know very well that I don't have time for such a trivial thing."

"I know, but…if we don't get the items away in time…then Bakura…he'll do something horrible."

Penelope knew exactly what he would do. Summon Zorc the Dark One and then kill her afterwards.

"So…if we were going to go to Egypt…when would we go?" Stephanie asked.

"Well…my grandfather and Dr. Hawkins wanted to go during Christmas break, and I could convince him to let all of us come along.

* * *

"That little bitch!"

Bakura threw his glass against the wall and watched it shatter onto the hardwood floor of his apartment. Upon waking up, he discovered that the millennium rod was missing.

"She stole the rod! How dare she!" He was enraged at her insolence. She was supposed to be his puppet, his servant and do his bidding. But somehow those ancient Egyptian morons found out and now he has lost her to the Pharaoh and his friends.

Bakura sat on the floor of his apartment. All he had left was the eye, the scales and his ring. He placed the eye in the middle of a circle of candles and called to the evil spirits.

"Spirits, please show me what I seek. Show me the girl."

The spirits granted his wish and through a small vision he could see her. She was with the Pharaoh and his friends, sitting around and talking.

"We'll have to go to Egypt to make sure that the items go to their resting place…before Bakura gets them," Yugi said.

"Yeah! We don't want anything else bad to happen to our world," Tristan added.

Seto Kaiba was among them, not really speaking or contributing anything important.

Instead he held her hand and only listened with interest when she spoke.

"Well, it appears that she has Seto Kaiba wrapped around her little finger…perhaps I could take advantage of that?"

Bakura began to laugh wickedly as the image faded. He knew how to get his revenge upon Aphrodite now.

* * *

After the meeting, Penelope and Seto stood outside together. Mokuba wanted to hang out with Tea, and Stephanie and Joey must have ran off somewhere.

"So Wheeler and your best friend are an item too." Seto stated. "I'm not surprised."

"I'm not either. Those two are so much alike…it's like they were made for each other."

Seto looked down at her and smiled. He reached for her hand and held it in his own.

"I think we might've been made for each other too," he said.

Both of them got into his car and Seto started the engine.

"Come with me," he said.

"Where?"

"My place," he said. "I believe you haven't been there yet."

Penelope nodded and fastened her seatbelt. Seto sped off down the street and across town to his mansion. When he pulled up to front, she couldn't believe her eyes. His house was huge! It was a large modern looking white mansion with Greek pillars in front, lots of windows, a fountain out in front that was surrounded by perfectly trimmed hedges and beautiful trees. Together they got out of his car and headed up the cobblestone driveway.

When Seto opened the door, she was still amazed at the grand entrance. It was a large entryway with two grand staircases that led in different directions, and a shiny white marbled floor that she could practically see her own reflection in. From the ceiling hung a large silver crystal chandelier that lit up the entire room.

"Your house is so cool," she said not being able to think of anything else to say. Seto smiled and kissed her on the cheek.

"Did you want me to give you a tour?" She nodded and followed him through the halls through various rooms, down wings, upstairs, downstairs and finally ending the tour in the upstairs parlor.

Seto always found it strange for him to live in such a huge house. Only Mokuba and himself lived there and he wouldn't mind selling the place. It always reminded him of his tyrant of a stepfather, Gozaburo. But now that Penelope was here, he actually took a little pride in showing off to her. On the outside he may have appeared calm and collected, but on the inside he was trying his hardest to impress her-even though he had already won her over with his charm.

Penelope sat down on one of the plush couches, straightening out her skirt and placing her bag on the floor next to her. Seto saw a glint of gold sticking out of the bag and he couldn't help but be drawn to it.

'The millennium rod.'

Suddenly the room began to spin and the next thing he knew he was dressed in ancient Egyptian clothes. A beautiful girl stood before him wearing a long white tunic with gold trim. Around her neck was a huge golden necklace with lots of lapis lazuli embedded into it.

'Penelope…' Her turquoise eyes gleamed in the light of the orange sunset, her long orchid curls so exotic and beautiful. She looked like a princess.

He slowly approached her, wanting desperately to touch her. When he was close enough, his hands came in contact with her shoulders and pulled her dress down, revealing her beautiful naked body to him.

"I know you must marry the Pharaoh, but I can't help myself. You do not understand the effect that you have upon me."

"It is always you that I have truly loved. And now I want you to prove your love to me."

She undid his robes and stared at his naked body with lust. Their bodies touched and the image began to blur and fade.

"Seto? Seto?"

Seto opened his blue eyes and realized that his head was resting on Penelope's lap.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah…I'm fine. What happened?"

"You were staring at my bag, then you fainted. Are you sure you're alright?"

"Yes," Seto said sitting up. "Is the millennium rod in your bag?"

"Why do you ask?"

Seto decided he should tell her. He must tell her about the connection that he has to that particular item.

"I need to see it. I mean, I want to look at it. When I see it, I can't help but feel a strong connection to it."

Penelope took the rod out of her bag and held it out for him to see. Seto touched it carefully and felt a strange power run through his body. It was a very weird, yet strangely familiar feeling. He didn't believe in all that ancient-Egyptian junk like Yugi did. He believed in his own destiny…but he couldn't shake the feeling that the rod was once his.

"Bakura might find out about the rod," he said. "Is it okay if I kept it here for you? I have many hiding places that would be perfect."

"Actually, yes. That would be good. It's getting really stressful having to guard this thing anyway. It's honestly more trouble than it's worth."

The two teens got up and Seto found a place in his mansion that was a suitable hiding place for the millennium rod. On the second floor of his home was a large office that had a safe hidden behind a bookshelf. He locked the rod in there and assured Penelope that it would be safe there.

Afterwards they headed back to the parlor and sat down on the couch together.

"Seto…when you fainted…you said my name. Did you see something?"

"Yes…the rod showed me some scene from ancient Egypt."

"Do you think it was your past?"

"I don't know. But you were there too." Penelope smirked and sat on Seto's lap. He wrapped his arms around her and held her close to him.

"Did anything happen between us?" Seto smirked and laid her down on the couch. She felt her face grow hot when she felt his breath just inches from hers. His cerulean eyes started her down and she could see a hint of desire in them.

He wanted her.

"If you must know, you and I were getting very…_close_." It took a minute for her to process his words before she realized what he meant.

"Oh! Wow…" she blushed, only making Seto smirk again.

He brought his lips down onto hers and kissed her softly at first, slowly becoming more passionate each passing second. Penelope took his hand and placed it onto her breast. She wanted him to touch her again. Seto gladly agreed as he gave her breast a squeeze. Seto's other hand was on her hip for a few minutes, but then started creeping up her thigh and underneath her skirt. He enjoyed the feeling of her soft skin and even earned a moan from her when he traced his finger lightly against her heated core. She could feel him through the thin fabric that covered her, but she wanted more.

"Seto…please…touch me," she whispered. "I want you to."

Seto complied and pushed her skirt up to her waist revealing her lacy black panties. He took a minute to enjoy the view before pulling her panties down to her knees. Penelope's heart began to race faster as his finger traced over her womanhood, rubbing her clitoris and then moving down farther until his finger was inside her wet core. Penelope pushed her underwear down to her ankles and kicked them off, spreading legs farther apart for her lover. Seto inserted a second finger into her and began pumping gently inside her.

"Seto…" he loved the way his name escaped her lips. It was like music to him. She arched her back in an attempt to have more of him inside her. He pumped his fingers faster and faster until she moaned loudly. Her inner walls clenched over his fingers and he removed his fingers from her. She looked so beautiful after an orgasm. Her hair and clothes were disheveled and her panties were lying on the floor next to the couch.

Seto was about to start unbuttoning his shirt when the blackberry in his back pocket began to ring. He grudgingly answered.

"Hello," he said sternly.

"Seto, it's me. I'm coming home soon."

"Okay. When?"

"In about fifteen minutes. I'll see you later, okay?"

"Okay Mokuba. Bye." Seto hung up and sighed. He was hoping to do more with Penelope, but right now it just wasn't going to happen. And he didn't have a condom either.

"What's wrong?" Penelope asked him.

"Mokuba is going to be home soon." Penelope sat up and grabbed her panties from off the floor and put them back on.

"I'm just going to go the bathroom to freshen up," she said getting up from the couch. She left the room and wandered down the hall for a minute and then came back.

"Back already?" he asked.

"No," she said annoyed. "Where's the bathroom again?"

Seto smiled and led her down the hall and to the left and pointed out the door.

"It's the second door on the right. Are you all set?"

"Yes. Thanks Seto."

When Penelope was in the bathroom she took some time to neaten out her hair and fix her clothes. But she couldn't stop thinking about the pleasure Seto had brought her just moments ago.

'I hope he tries to have his way with me again…I don't think I can keep waiting for him like this.'

Once she was all set she headed back to the parlor. But what she saw was very unexpected.

"Seto!"

Bakura was standing over an unconscious Seto laughing wickedly.

"What did you do to him!"

"Well, if it isn't the traitorous bitch!"

"What did you do to Seto!" she demanded.

"Get me the millennium rod and I will tell you. But if you don't, I will take him from you."

Penelope gritted her teeth and glared at him. He was so cruel to her, and now he was threatening to take Seto away from her.

"Seto! I'm home!" Penelope could hear Mokuba coming up the stairs. Bakura narrowed his eyes at her.

"You are lucky this time…but next time I will get what I want. You can certainly count on that."He disappeared and Penelope had the chance to go to Seto and make sure he was okay.

"Seto? Seto? Wake up!" Seto opened his eyes and looked up at her.

"What…happened?"

"Bakura."

"He tried to kill me…so he could get to you."

"He's gone now. Mokuba is home and the millennium rod is safe." Seto sat up and she held him against her.

"I'm just so glad you're not hurt!" she whispered.

Just then the door opened and Mokuba entered the room.

"Um…am I interrupting anything?" Mokuba said awkwardly.

Penelope and Seto immediately let go of each other and looked at the young boy that was standing in the doorway.

"No…it's nothing," Seto said. "I'm going to bring Penelope home now."

"Okay…" Mokuba said.

"And Roland will watch you while I'm gone."

"Sweet! Now I can kick his butt at Just Dance again!"

Seto chuckled and got up from the floor to give his brother a hug before leaving with his girlfriend.

* * *

"I'm glad you were able to come over today," he said kissing her hand. Seto had volunteered to walk her to her front doorstep like a gentleman. It was hard to end the day here, but they both knew that they would see each other again soon.

"Does that mean you plan on inviting me over again soon?" she asked him. Seto smirked.

"We didn't get a chance to finish what we started today. But I'm not into rushing things."

"I know. I understand. We should wait until the time is right." Seto kissed her on the lips for a moment and pulled away.

Resisting her was getting harder for him each day and he needed to have some form of self-control.

"I'll see you at school Monday," she said. Seto nodded and they stared into each other's eyes for a minute before he got into his car and drove home.

* * *

Hope you enjoyed it! :) Please review, etc. etc. etc. and...

Happy Holidays! (Merry Christmas!) :)


	22. Seto's Secret

**Chapter Twenty-Two: Seto's Secret **

That evening while Mokuba was fast asleep, Seto's mind was on nothing except for the millennium rod. He sat in his study all night holding it in his hands, feeling it's power and letting it show his past life over and over again. The Pharaoh and Aphrodite were supposed to be married, but instead high priest Seto fell in love with Aphrodite. He vowed to make her his no matter what the law said, and with Akhenaden as his guide, he easily got what he wanted…for a price. Akhenaden used Seto to try and take the throne from the rightful Pharaoh, and then went behind his back and killed his friend Kisara and Aphrodite.

Seto looked up at the clock and realized that it was five o'clock in the morning. Time for work.

'Damn. I'll have to put this away for now,' he thought as he looked down at the millennium rod with longing.

Seto quickly made his way to his bedroom and got dressed in his usual business attire of all-black with his purple trench coat.

As Seto drove to work, he had thought of his girlfriend for a few minutes. But suddenly his thoughts drifted to Kisara; his ex-fling.

It was in London, England that the two had met. It was the summertime and Seto was competing in a tournament at Buckingham Palace when he saw her. She was standing among the royals, a daughter of a lord, but nonetheless a very beautiful one. She had long shimmering white hair, fair skin and bright blue eyes. He remembered she was dressed in a pale blue dress with a shawl and watched in awe as Seto defeated one duelist after another.

She thought he was brilliant and attractive. Kisara couldn't help but swoon every time she saw him. The poor girl was very nervous and almost too scared to speak to him until one night at a party she finally did. One of her friends knew she was interested in him, so she bribed Seto Kaiba to dance with Kisara.

They had an instant connection, but it wasn't one of love, more of infatuation. They spent the whole night together dancing and the next two weeks side by side nearly every moment during the day. But then summer was ending and Seto would have to leave. That was when they decided to cherish their last day together by making love in his hotel suite. It was then he realized that he wasn't in love with her. He only enjoyed the chase and before he left, they decided to simply remain friends. Seto told her to find someone else that she would truly love and she hoped the same for him.

They haven't spoken since.

'I wonder what Penelope would think…' He knew eventually he would have to come clean about his summer fling, but he just couldn't bear to tell her yet. She was a firecracker, sometimes headstrong and he was worried that she was going to get jealous or worse, upset with him.

'I'm sure she'll be fine with it…after all, she did sleep with that guy at her old school. From the way I see it, we've both got skeletons in our closets.'

He had seen hers, but he had yet to reveal his. Seto had yet to tell her about his life before he was adopted, or about how abusive his stepfather was, and how hard it was for him to trust anyone else until she came along.

Seto finally made it up to his office and immediately became consumed with nothing but his work.

At school all hell was unleashed.

Penelope and Seto were the hot gossip of the month. Their secret make-out session had made into the cell-phones of every student at school. Even some of the teachers knew, but acted like they didn't.

Penelope felt sick to her stomach all day. Seto on other hand made threats to those that made rude comments about him and they quickly stopped, afraid that Seto would sue them for all they were worth.

Katie was the only one who didn't seem afraid of the consequences. She had control over the school and put Penelope in her place. Right at the bottom-where she belonged.

She spent the day gloating while Massie, Taylor, Angela and Natalie remained quiet. Natalie was the only one who wasn't panged with inner guilt. Instead she was anticipating this afternoon, where the squad could finally get rid of Katie and even replace her as captain.

'No one torments my sister and gets away with it, especially not a backstabbing blonde-haired bitch like you,' she thought as she glanced at Katie through her peripheral vision.

Finally the school day was over. Seto could head to work, Yugi to his grandpa's game shop, Tea to cheerleading practice, and Tristan and Joey free to beat up all the idiots who dared to make fun of Penelope and Seto. Even though Joey and Tristan didn't particularly like Seto Kaiba, Yugi and Tea convinced them that no one deserves such scorn. And with Penelope involved, it gave them another reason to spend after school beating up one of the seniors that called Penelope a skank in front of everyone at lunch.

Tea on the other hand, was in her own pickle. Natalie had activated the phone tree and Tea had been at the Saturday evening meeting where the squad (except for Katie, her friends and Penelope) decided to tell the coach what was going on so they could get Katie off the squad and finally become the team they wanted to be.

'I hope this works,' Tea thought as she stepped into the gym for practice. Katie and her followers sat in the middle of the gym stretching while they gossiped. Serenity and some of the other freshmen were practicing stunts, while Natalie and Penelope were off with the other girls practicing their gymnastics on the mats.

Tea decided to join Penelope and proceeded to stretch and then go into her hand springs.

Then the coach entered the room and the girls discontinued what they were doing.

"Alright ladies! Stop what you're doing please. We need to have an important meeting."

All the girls gathered around the coach, wondering why she called this meeting in the first place.

"There has been a lot of gossip going on amongst each other, and from what I've heard, it's not good. Someone on this squad has been bullying other girls. Even worse, I had faith in this person to set an example and be a role model for the squad. Katie!"

Katie looked up from her nails and nervously up at her coach.

"I gave you the position of captain because you were the best on the squad and willing to pass on the legacy to the other girls. But clearly, after this fiasco…things are going to have to change. Starting with you."

"What? I totally didn't do anything. How can you possibly prove that?"

Natalie got up and spoke next.

"I received the video directly from you. You violated my sister's privacy and even worse, you put the reputation of a businessman on the line! I can't forgive you for that!"

"Even if I did, what are you going to do about it?"

"We…have decided that we've had enough of your bullying and want to do a recall election. Coach? Will you approve?"

The coach simply looked at the girls and nodded.

"Yes. In the event that the majority of the squad is dissatisfied with their captain, they can replace her effective immediately."

"Um excuse me? But some of us actually like having Katie as a captain. Why should we replace her," Massie said crossing her arms. Taylor nodded, but Angela was a bit skeptical.

"I'll make a notion to replace Katie as captain," Angela said sheepishly. "What? What the hell are you doing?" Katie growled. "Put your hand down!"

"No. I'm tired of you and it's because of you that we haven't progressed as a squad. Who will second my notion?"

Tea Gardener put her hand up.

"I do. It's time things changed for the better around here."

"Okay. All in favor of replacing Katie as captain, please raise your hand now."

Penelope and Natalie went first, followed by Serenity, Tea, and nearly all the girls on the squad. Angela raised her hand, and even Taylor and Massie reluctantly followed.

"What? I can't believe this! How can you do this to me?" She said to the coach. "Please! Reconsider your decision!"

"Not a chance. And in addition to your replacement, I am removing you from the squad. You have abused your power, and I now regret making you captain. I'll expect your uniform back by tomorrow morning."

Katie grumbled, swore under her breath and stomped out of the gym. A few girls swore that she even "flipped the bird" to everyone as she exited.

All Penelope could do now was thank her sister for what she did. It would take a few days for the comments to cease, but at least the source has been put in her place.

"So, do you girls want me to choose the captain, or would you like to nominate somebody?"

To everyone's surprise, Serenity stood up to speak.

"I think instead of one captain, we should have co-captains. You know, so there's shared power, instead of one person abusing it like before?"

"I agree with Serenity," said a mousy looking girl named Brittany.

"Me too!"

"I nominate Natalie!"

"I nominate Tea!"

"Kelly!"

"Angela!" Taylor said.

"I nominate Penelope!" one of the sophomore said. Penelope was taken aback.

"Um…that's very flattering and all…but I don't want to be captain…I just want to cheer," she said.

"Okay," the coach began. "If you want Kelly to be captain, raise your hand."

A couple of girls raised their hands. Three raised their hands for Angela, and the rest of the girls were split between Natalie and Tea.

"So…it's settled. Since there's a tie between Natalie and Tea, I'll just have to make them co-captains. Do you two accept your new positions?" The girls nodded and the squad cheered.

"So, what's your first order of business? Captain?" Penelope said to her sister.

"We're going to become a competitive squad and get some real respect around here!"Tea cheered in agreement, and the rest of the girls spent practice working on their routine. Massie, Taylor and Angela were kind of sad to see their friend go, but at the same time, relieved after realizing how much she was holding everyone back.

At the end of practice, all the girls deleted Katie's video message and spent all week at school encouraging everyone to do the same, all while advertising for the next football game. Most of the kids did, and to make things even better, they actually showed up.

* * *

"Ready? Let's go Warriors!" The halftime show was something the school could be proud of. The dance moves were better, the stunts were awesome, and Joey nearly held his breath every time his sister was thrown up into the air. But someone always caught her, and he would always sigh with relief afterward.

Penelope looked up at the stands and saw Seto and Mokuba sitting amongst all the fans, a small smile on her boyfriend's face. She could tell he was proud of her. Despite the drama that went on through the past few weeks, her true self was starting to come through, and he liked it.

After the game he came down from the stands to see her. She was dressed in the school's blue and white uniform, and her hair was tied into a high ponytail with a blue ribbon. Although she was covered up down to the knee, he still couldn't help but think she was sexy.

"Nice job out there," he said. He had seen her at her best out there. She got thrown up into the air a few times, did lots of stunts and the team had a solid dance number to back it up.

"Thanks." Seto took out a single red rose that was hidden under his jacket. She smiled and kissed him on the lips briefly before taking the flower and going over to Stephanie, who was sporting half teal and half red hair. And she wore a bright green tutu over her jeans and bomber jacket. While they were jumping up and down and giggling, more of the same went on all around him.

'So this is what high school is supposed to be like…' Seto would never be a part of it. He had a company to run. It was also going to be hard to spend time with his girlfriend, but he would try and make it work. Once all of this chaotic mess is gone, things will get better and he vowed to try his hardest to be a part of her world-all while working on letting her into his.

* * *

Two teenagers met in a run-down part of town in front of an old abandoned factory.

"So…you want to get rid of the princess?" Bakura said evilly.

"Yes. I'll do anything to get rid of Penelope. And her stupid sister too."

"Anything, you say?" He was starting to like where this was going. He took the millennium eye from his pocket.

"I will grant you the power which you seek. But in return, you will help me."

"Yes! I will! Give it to me now!" Bakura took the eye and pushed it into her eye socket, causing her to scream in pain as the millennium eye fused with her own.

"There! Now you will have all the power you want…and for your first task, I want you to come with me to Egypt during the holidays. Until then…" Bakura disappeared along with his wicked laugh, while Katie lay on her back, looking up at the moon knowing that she would get her revenge against those twins.

_I'm stronger, than yesterday_

_It's nothing by my way_

_My loneliness ain't killing me no more_

_I'm stronger

* * *

_

About two weeks later everyone met at the airport ready to depart for Egypt. As to how they got there, it wasn't easy. Yugi was with his grandpa, which was easy. He could go on the trip no problem. Tristan told his mother he would be staying at Yugi's for the holiday's. Joey didn't have to have a story. His drunken father wouldn't care. Tea was having Mai cover for her, and so was Stephanie. They told their parents they would be staying with her during vacation.

That just left Penelope and Natalie. Their parents would never agree to this, so as Seto was helping them leave the house, he used the millennium rod on their parents to allow them to leave for Egypt.

It worked so well that Seto decided it wouldn't hurt using it on Penelope's brother. He wanted to see what else it could do. For about five minutes he made Chris repeat whatever he told him too until Penelope came upstairs looking for him.

"What are you doing to my brother?"

"Nothing. I think he might be coming down from some kind of drug trip again."

Penelope just shook her head when she saw smoke coming out of Chris's bass clarinet.

"Was he using his clarinet as a bong again?"

"I don't think I want to know," Seto said. Little did Penelope know that Seto had hypnotized her brother into flushing his entire stash down the toilet as soon as everyone left.

As to why Natalie had decided to come along with Penelope and her friends was beyond her. Natalie hated museums, hated history and wouldn't be interested in mummies or ancient tombs.

Penelope was thinking this might've been Penelope's way of trying to bond with her twin and redeeming herself for all the times she's wronged her. As far as it went, getting Katie kicked off the squad was good enough, but when Natalie heard that Egypt had nice beaches, it gave her a good excuse to she went somewhere exotic for vacation. Not to mention she would be nice and tan when they returned for school.

"Flight 498 for Cairo is now boarding."

"Well, that's our cue," Tristan said.

"Everyone ready?" Joey asked.

"Yeah! Let's do this," Yugi said cheering. The entire group was cheering, except for Seto who was still turned off by their excessive cheerfulness.

He was looking forward to the trip, but his hope was that he would finally get some real alone time with Penelope where he could finally open his heart to her.

* * *

What dangers lie ahead in Egypt? What is Natalie's motive for going on the trip? What are Katie and Bakura up to? Will Seto finally open up to Penelope?

Find out next time! :)


	23. Finally Here

**Chapter Twenty-Three: Finally Here **

The plane ride had been endless. Exhausting. Annoying.

Seto was used to flying, but not with the geeks, or his girlfriend. Usually he could just take a private plane, or fly in his jet. But no, even though he paid for a portion of this trip, he somehow ended up in coach sitting in front of a screaming child who kept on kicking at his seat. Meanwhile Penelope was asleep next to him, and Mokuba was across the aisle sitting with Tea, both of them watching an in-flight movie.

When the plane finally landed he was beyond relief. He was so glad when the airport didn't loose his bags (he would sue them if they did) and followed the rest of the group out of the airport and onto a fancy bus that he had paid for. The bus would take them to the place they were staying in.

Dr. Hawkins, being an archaeologist had made many friends, and one of his good friends was away for the holidays in India and allowed them to stay in his house while they were gone. The house was a modest one, located on the outskirts of Cairo away from all the smog and pollution. The Nile river was not far from the house and anyone could get a good view of it out of the third floor window. The house was not like those in Japan. It was in a block of apartment buildings and a sandstone stoop led to the front door.

The whole house inside was painted a russet orange with lots of furniture and artifacts from around the world. There were about four bedrooms and a study in the house, a kitchen/dining room and a very large living room with a round sectional sofa in the middle of the room.

"Wow Dr. Hawkins, your friend's got a nice place here," Joey said.

"Yes, Gerald and his wife do enjoy living in this particular house. Now, if we head upstairs, you kids can pick out where you wish to stay."

All the teens immediately scrambled up the stairs (with the exception of Seto) and down the hallway. Joey, Yugi and Tristan decided to room together, Tea, Stephanie, Penelope and Natalie had a room, while Mokuba and Seto took the bedroom away from everyone else that was at the end of the hall. The remaining bedroom was left for Solomon Moto and Dr. Hawkins to share.

Natalie was less than impressed with Cairo so far. She was hoping they would go shopping soon, but no one seemed interested.

'I should've just waited until April, then I could've gone to Dubai with my aunt and uncle and I could've shopped all I wanted. But no…I'm stuck here.'

Natalie also had to share a bed with her twin sister. That part wasn't so bad. The twins both put their stuff onto the bed, both of them unpacking some of their things. It was rather interesting to see the contents empty out onto the bed. Half the bed was pink and the other half was black. Then Natalie saw something black and lacy peeing out from a pair of striped socks.

"Is that what I think it is?" She said taking the lacy article out from underneath the pile of clothes.

"No…it's nothing," she said trying to take back the lacy bra and thong that Natalie was now holding out for all the girls in the room to see. Tea was raising an eyebrow, but Stephanie wasn't the least bit surprised. She was one of the few people who knew the kind of relationship Penelope had with Seto Kaiba.

"Whoa…nothing? You do what black lacy underwear means right?"

"I don't follow," Tea said not understanding Natalie's hint.

"Are you planning on having sex with your boyfriend while were on vacation?" Penelope turned bright red and snatched back her underwear and bra.

"N-no…we are not…doing…_that_!" she stammered. The opposite was actually true. The two of them had touched each other a few times, but they still had yet to sleep together.

"Liar, liar pants on fire!" Natalie said giggling.

"Well even if I am going to, at least its with just one guy and not a different one each week like you've been doing!"

"Here we go…" Stephanie said sighing. "This is the part where they bicker endlessly."

"We do not!" both of them said at once.

"Come on Stephanie, let's go see what the guys are up to," Tea said taking her out of the room.

"Sure. And as for you too, you'd better sort out your differences now because we've got a long day ahead of us tomorrow." She left with Tea, leaving the twins to sort things out on their own.

"Look I-"

"Seriously, Natalie. Why are you even here? You hate museums and anything that has to do with ancient history?"

"I just wanted to try to make amends…for how I've been treating you."

"You want to make amends now? What about back when I was getting bullied? Or this year when Katie and her friends posted a video of a private moment between me and Seto?"

"I did."

"What? No you didn't."

"Yes, I did. I told the coach what happened and the team replaced Katie as captain and removed her from the team."

Penelope was at a loss for words. Then, for the first time in a long time, she reached out and hugged her sister.

"I don't know what to say but…thanks."

"You're welcome. Now, what exactly are we doing tomorrow that's so important?"

Penelope began to explain to her sister about the millennium items and how they wanted to help Yami find out about his past.

"So we're going into an ancient tomb that's probably cursed?"

"Yes. So don't wear heels or bring your Chanel bag with you. Actually, don't wear anything nice that you'll miss."

"If you think I am wearing tacky cargo shorts then you are very mistaken."

"It doesn't have to be that. Just something you can move around in. You know…in case we set off a trap or have to run really fast."

"Run? From what?"

"Mummies?" Natalie started laughing in disbelief.

"Mummies? You mean those gross, bandaged dead guys?"

"Yes."

"Ew. That's disgusting. But I'm pretty sure once they're dead that they stay that way."

Penelope hoped that was true…but with ancient Egyptian curses being real, and Bakura running around somewhere out there, it was very likely they would face all of their deepest and darkest fears while trying to help Yami.

Seto had unpacked his things and laid on the bed and stared out the window at the surrounding buildings. Mokuba was off playing with the nerd herd, and he was wondering when Penelope would walk through his doorway to see him. He had hoped that the two of them might finally become more intimate during the trip to Egypt, but that wasn't happening in this house. At least, not with everyone here.

'Damn it. I even packed the condoms and everything.'

While he was lost in thought, there was a knock on the door. Seto sighed.

"Come in." The door opened, and Penelope was standing there, dressed in a white t-shirt and a pair of black shorts. Her curly hair was down and cascaded over her shoulders. He loved the way she looked right now.

"I was wondering if you would show up," he said. She closed the door behind her and laid down next to him on the bed.

"You know I wouldn't make you wait too long." Seto smirked as she snuggled into him. He wrapped his arms around her waist and closed his eyes. There were some days where he didn't care if he kissed or touched Penelope, sometimes being with her was just enough.

"Seto, have you seen my-uh…am I interrupting something right now?" Mokuba was standing in the doorway blushing heavily. Seto and Penelope immediately let go of each other and sat up.

"No, Mokuba…you weren't interrupting. We were just talking."

"Okay Seto, whatever you say."

"I'll see you later," she said to him. Penelope left a kiss on Seto's cheek and went back to her room.

'I suppose I'll have to try again later,' Seto thought, annoyed at his brother.

* * *

That evening after dinner, Dr. Hawkins and Mr. Moto had to head out to their expedition at the pyramids.

"But grandpa, we just got here. Didn't you want to at least stay until tomorrow morning?"

"I'm sorry Yugi, I wish we could but Giza is a day's drive away. You kids will be fine."

"Alright…grandpa. I hope you and Dr. Hawkins find what you've been looking for."

"Thank you, Yugi. And I hope you kids have fun on your trip as well. We'll see you in Giza on Thursday."

* * *

"Bye grandpa!"

"Have a safe trip Dr. Hawkins," Tea said as the group watched them leave. Soon the car that picked them up was gone too, and the teenagers went back into the house.

"So, what do we do now until tomorrow when Ishizu meets us?" Tristan asked.

"We party, that's what!" Joey said. Seto glared at him with all his might.

"What the hell do you mean, Wheeler?"

"You know…we could stay up late, watch movies, play video games…you know…"

"Whatever." Joey and Tristan ran upstairs to get all of their cards, Yugi went to get some of his games while Stephanie and Tea began searching through the DVD's for something to watch.

"I'll make some popcorn," Penelope said heading to the kitchen.

"I'll help you," Seto said following her to the kitchen and closing the dining room door behind him.

"Are they really going to make popcorn in there?" Mokuba asked Natalie. She was taken aback by his comment.

"Uh…how about we go upstairs and help Yugi," she said taking him by the hand and leading him upstairs.

As soon as they were in the kitchen, Seto grabbed her and kissed her roughly. Her back came in contact with the wall and wrapped her legs around his waist. His hands slid around her waist and grabbed her butt. She was rather surprised that he would try that right now with her.

'Two can certainly play at that game,' she thought naughtily.

Penelope slid her tongue into his mouth and Seto was not expecting her to do that. Usually he was the one doing that first. He decided to play along and explore every corner of her mouth like they had done so many times before.

"I'm tired of you tempting me like this," he said darkly.

"I know," she whispered in his ear. "But don't worry, soon it'll happen."

A knock was heard from the other side of the door.

"Hey! Is the popcorn ready yet?" Stephanie said through the door.

"What?" Penelope and Seto quickly fixed their clothes and hair and let Stephanie into the kitchen.

"You guys haven't started the popcorn, have you?"

"No…uh…I can't find it. Do you remember where it is?" she asked her friend. Stephanie opened the top shelf and handed her a package to cook in the microwave.

"Make two. You know how Joey and Tristan are when it comes to food."

Penelope laughed, but Seto stayed silent. Stephanie thought he was just being a jerk as usual, he never really talked to her. It's not that he didn't like her, it's just that he didn't really know her.

"Yeah, those two sure can eat." The girls decided to get the popcorn ready while Seto went out the living room to sit down and relax. Well, he tried to relax. Natalie was playing her new rap CD and Joey, Tristan, Yugi and Mokuba were playing cards. Tea was sitting in the recliner, drinking a cup of soda that was on the coffee table.

Seto decided to try and play along with the nerd herd, even though he still resented Yugi for taking his title away from him.

'That was a year ago, why are you still hung up on that?' his conscious asked him.

Seto knew why. He wanted to be the best and prove himself. He was always the best at everything and he still wanted to be. Seto was always trying to run his corporation, have top grades, and be the best duelist in the world. And now he had a girlfriend to please and take care of.

Penelope and Stephanie entered the living room with several bowls of popcorn and handed one to Tristan and put the other one on the table for everyone else. Joey and Tristan immediately began to pig out on the bowl shared between them while Yugi laughed at something Tea said.

For the next three hours everyone stayed up playing video games and playing card games. Tea brought one of her dance video games and everyone (except Seto) took turns with the wii remotes trying to follow along with the music. After the video games Penelope played some of her music while everyone played "Apples to Apples."

Seto wasn't sure if he liked Penelope's music either. Natalie listened to really bad rap, but Penelope's was on the other extreme of loud blaring guitars and lots of screaming.

But it was better than letting Yugi play his Japanese-pop. That got annoying after a while.

Eventually everyone began to grow tired and drowsy, knowing that tomorrow morning Ishizu would be picking them up. The clock in the living room read 12:45. Ishizu would be here at 7:00 a.m. Seto was used to not sleeping for long periods of time, this was nothing new to him. He followed his younger brother and everyone else upstairs to the bedrooms where they would retire for the night.

For tomorrow, the real fun begins…

* * *

Finally I updated! Sorry for taking so long, I had to work, I was in a play and had to finish one of my graduate courses. But now it is February vacation, which means I'll have some time to get another chapter out before going back to work in March. (I got a long-term position as a third grade education-assistant and am psyched!)

I know that the chapter was uneventful (sorry), I just needed to get some of my mojo back before writing the next few chapters. I'm hoping to end this story in the next three or four chapters (eventually).

Thank you for reading, and if you have time a review would be nice. :)


	24. The Pharaoh's Tomb

**Chapter Twenty-Four: The Pharaoh's Tomb **

"We must prepare ourselves for soon the Pharaoh and his gang of cheerleaders will be here." Bakura was in the tomb, at the end of it, so to speak.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm like, coming. Give me a break already!"

Katie fell forward and untangled herself from the yards of ropes that had somehow gotten around her ankles while setting up the traps in the tomb. There were plenty of them already (plus the ancient Egyptian curse) but Bakura wanted to make sure that they wouldn't get through the tomb, and if they did, most of them would die along the way.

His plan was indeed his most evil yet; there were crocodiles, evil curses, booby traps and lots of spikes and dangerous passages-but he knew that his main objective was to get all seven items to awaken Zorc and kill Aphrodite and the Pharaoh.

"So, like, what do we do now?"

"We wait. They will be here soon and then we can put our plan into motion."

"And then can we like, get something to eat? Do they have a Taco Bell?"

'I hired an idiot…'

* * *

"How much longer until were there?" Mokuba asked for the umpteenth time.

"Yeah! I wanna see the tomb," Tristan said.

Everyone could tell he was pumped. Stephanie was listening to her ipod and humming elaborate songs (probably guitar solos) while everyone else was chattering in the back. Seto managed to fight for a seat near the front, but couldn't get the front passenger seat due to the fact that Ishizu was sitting in it.

'I think I feel sick,' he kept thinking over and over. And the fact that Tea had everyone singing didn't help either.

'Doesn't anyone here realize that I do not like show tunes?'

Even Penelope was softly singing along until she noticed that Seto looked rather pale and sickly.

"Seto, are you alright? You don't look so good."

"Tell Ishizu…to pull over. Quick."

"Ishizu, we need to pull over!"

Ishizu knew why before Penelope even told her (the millennium necklace already did) and had the driver pull the van over.

Seto got out of the car, followed by Yugi and Penelope and threw up onto the desert sands. The combination of bumpy roads, desert heat and the dry arid environment didn't do so well on his stomach.

"Kaiba, are you going to be okay?"

Seto slowly stood up feeling a little better, but not enough to feel comfortable. Yugi gave him a canteen and made him drink some water. Mokuba darted out of the van and towards his brother.

"Big brother! Are you going to be okay?"

"Yes. I'm fine, I just got carsick."

Mokuba hadn't seen Seto get carsick in a long time. When they were living in the orphanage, Seto always had to sit in the front of the bus on field trips or on the way to school. He just couldn't take the bumpiness or the fact that he was in an enclosed space with a dozen other people. After a couple swigs of water and rinsing out his mouth, Seto was able to head back into the van.

About a half hour later they arrived in the Valley of the Kings where they would find the tomb that Marik and Ishizu once guarded. Odion was there to greet them. Usually he appeared rather stoic, but today he appeared more solemn and grief. He dedicated his life to protecting his brother, but in the end he could not keep him safe from the likes of Bakura.

"At last, after 5,000 years our family will finally see the Pharaoh return to his world and all the items as well."

Everyone gathered in front of the tomb, most of them nervous as to what was held in store once they were inside.

"Okay, everyone ready?" Yugi asked.

"Yeah, we're ready. And we're with you every step of the way," Joey said. Ishizu and Odion opened the tomb and allowed the group of teens inside. They were armed with flashlights and nothing else and were very wary of the dangers that lurked in the tomb.

As soon as they were inside, everyone turned on their flashlights, only to find themselves standing in front of a room of several doorways.

Tristan walked up to one of them and stared at it.

"Uh guys…what are we supposed to do here?" Yugi and the others thought hard until Tea finally spoke up.

"I think we might have to split up. Call me crazy…but it just might work."

"Are you insane? There could be booby traps down there and stuff," Natalie said.

"She does have a point. And it is said that eventually all doors lead to the Pharaoh's resting place…it's like a maze," Yugi said.

"Well then, who is going with who?" Mokuba asked.

"I call Yugi!" Joey said taking his best friend's hand.

"I'll go with you two," Stephanie said running over to Joey and Yugi. Penelope thought it was perfect since they needed to spend some quality time together.

"I want to go with Tea!" Mokuba said running over to her. Tristan decided to go with the pair as well.

"Penelope? Would you like to come with me?" She smiled at Seto.

"Of course I would."

Everyone seemed pretty happy as to who was with who, except Natalie of course.

"Hey! What about me?"

The group stopped and looked at Natalie.

"Oh, I'm sorry Natalie. I didn't mean to forget you. You're more than welcome to join us," Yugi said kindly.

"Natalie, you can come with us," Penelope said sighing.

"Are you sure? I wouldn't want to ruin your time with your boyfriend. But then again…this would be a perfect way to keep an eye on you to make sure the two of you keep your sexual impulses to yourselves."

"Natalie!"

* * *

"Glad you chose to come with us," Penelope said as the three teens walked through the narrow passage of the tomb. Well, she was actually being sarcastic. As much as she didn't want her sister with her, it was better than going with her friends, most of whom didn't know her well-or accept her.

"Well, it's better than being stuck with that annoying cheerleader, or that annoying New Yorker or your other nerd friends."

Penelope rolled her eyes and sighed.

'Great, now she's starting to sound like Seto…' she thought.

The trio traveled further down the passage until they entered a huge room. Suddenly the torches lit up and revealed shelves upon shelves of coffins and mummies.

"This room…it's full of…"

"Mummies," Seto said examining the closest one.

"Um, ew! I'm like, going to barf. This is so disgusting."

"Relax. They're dead. It's not like they're going anywhere."

Seto rolled his eyes at the comments coming from the twins. He started making his way down into the middle of the room, and the girls stopped their bickering for a second to notice.

"Seto, what are you doing?" Penelope said running down the steps to him.

"We need to get through this room, so that's what I'm doing."

"But, aren't there curses?"

He scoffed.

"Please. It's just some hocus-pocus nonsense made to keep people from robbing the tombs." He took one step and instantly set off a trap.

The mummies around the room began to stir and grumble after being awoken from their deep sleep.

Penelope and Natalie were both glaring at Seto now.

"I suggest we run," he said. The three of them were about to make their way to the other end of the room when the mummies surrounded them completely.

Natalie was freaking out and Penelope was completely stumped.

'How the hell are we supposed to get out of here now?"

* * *

Yugi, Joey and Stephanie headed down a set of never-ending stairs, hoping that it would take them to the Pharaoh's chamber. The air smelled musty and dank, like something had died down here thousands of years ago, but the smell never went away.

"Do you guys smell that?" Joey asked.

"Yeah…it's kind of nasty."

After walking further down, Yugi could hear the sound of running water.

"Anyone hear that?"

"Yeah," Stephanie said. "I think we might've found something that_ isn't_ dead or decaying."

The chamber walls narrowed as they made way further down through the tomb. After a good twenty minutes of walking, they came to a huge ditch in the middle of the tomb. It was about twenty feet deep and one side that was walled up had a small stream of water flowing out of it.

"Uh, Yugi…I think we should turn around. I don't think this is a good idea."

"I know it's not, but maybe we could find an easier way across," Yugi said. The three teens looked around the room and up above them saw a ladder and some rope.

"Hm…why would that stuff be here in a 5,000 year old tomb?" Joey asked. "Cuz I don't remember the ancient Egyptians having ladders back then, do you Yugi?"

"Guys, I think someone else might've been in here first," Stephanie said. "And I bet that if we cross that channel then something bad might happen no matter what we do."

"I got a better idea," Joey said. "We break the damn and swim across!"

He grabbed a rock and threw it hard at the flimsy looking dam, creating a dent, but nothing more.

"Come guys! Help me out here." Stephanie and Yugi sighed and started throwing anything they could find at the wall, eventually creating a huge crack. Slowly the water began to squirt out of it, and then after one last rock throw, the damn broke open, flooding the entire room, including right where the trio was standing.

"Joey! You moron! We're going to get killed now because of you!"

"That's not the worst part!" Yugi said. "We have to swim out of here!"

A crocodile swam by them and everyone swam faster.

The three of them started swimming and kicking with all their might until they got to the other set of stairs opposite of the room. And they got there just in time too, several more crocodiles were swimming around in the water, snapping at them and eying what would've been their first meal in a long time.

* * *

Tristan, Tea and Mokuba didn't have any major obstacles, but there were tons of traps along the corridor and they had to be very careful not to set them off. There were ropes, spikes, cages and arrows.

"Okay…let's take our time," Tristan said cautiously stepping over another rope.

"Sure thing," Mokuba said. "Tea, don't step there! I think that's another trap…"

Tea stopped and looked down before stepping on the tile. It was marked with a scarab beetle.

"Phew! Thanks. I didn't want to set off anything."

Within time, the trio made it to the end of the passage, and all sighed with relief.

"That was definitely not easy," Tristan said catching his breath. Their hearts raced the entire time but now they could relax for a moment before moving on.

"I hope the others are okay," Mokuba said taking a step forward. Suddenly the room began to shake and a huge cage fell on top of them. Tea and Tristan sighed and looked at Mokuba with annoyance.

"Oops."

* * *

"Shit! How are we supposed to get out of this one!" Penelope said shaking.

Seto knew that throwing a card at them wouldn't help, and he didn't have his duel disk either. This was practically hopeless.

The mummies were coming closer and Penelope was so scared when she stared into their hollow holes that were once eyes.

One of them stared at her, and then it looked at Seto. It said something in Egyptian and the next thing they knew, all the mummies were bowing to the two of them.

"Uh…what the hell?" Natalie was confused as to what was going on until she saw her sister and Seto starting to move to the other end of the room. "Hey! Wait for me!" She ran up the steps and out of the room, the three of them making sure never to back into that room again.

"Okay, let's keep going. Maybe the others made it through too," Penelope said as they headed down the stone steps and through a narrow passage. It was so narrow that they had to go through it sideways one at a time.

"This…is not cool!" Natalie said annoyed.

"Well, at least you didn't wear those stupid heels of yours."

"Those are Louis Vuitton's thank you very much! Do you have any idea what all this musty dead air is going to do to my hair?"

"No, and nobody cares." Natalie ran a finger through her hair, noticing that it was no longer pin-straight like it always was. It was starting to revert back to it's natural waves.

"Will you two cut it out?" Seto said getting annoyed. "We've got bigger problems to worry about."

The walls had widened enough to accommodate two people, but the passage up ahead dipped down and was half full of water.

"No…not the water! I don't want to get my hair wet!"

"Will you shut up? I'd be more worried about what's in that water than anything else. Give me your flashlight." Natalie sighed and handed her flashlight over to her sister.

"You're seriously not going under there are you?" she said. Penelope didn't say another word and stuck her head into the water with her flashlight to see if anything was down there. A few seconds later she came back up.

"Whoa."

"What did you see?" Seto asked her.

"It's okay to go through, the water looks like it won't go past my chin. The walls are full of hieroglyphics. It's pretty cool except for the fact that they're underwater."

"And no piranhas?" Natalie said nervously.

"Are you really that dense? Piranhas don't live in Egypt. They're in South America."

"Well I'm sorry if I'm not a genius like you, Kaiba," she said coolly.

Seto said nothing else to her and followed Penelope through the water. He was annoyed he would ruin his trench coat, but he could always buy another one. For her, it was worth it to come down here and help her and Yugi.

Natalie groaned with annoyance and followed them into the water, knowing that her hair would not stay straight once it got wet.

* * *

"Okay, everyone on the count of three! One, two, three! Lift!" Tea, Tristan and Mokuba attempted to lift the cage for the umpteenth time, this time Mokuba was able to get out.

"Yes! Okay, now let's get Tea out next! Ready? One, two, three! Lift!" Mokuba signaled. The three of them lifted the cage again, and Tea held the cage up as she wiggled out from underneath it.

"Tristan, let's get you out now." After a couple tries, the three of them managed to get Tristan out and they continued on to the end of the tomb.

Eventually everyone met in a small gathering area right before the last room.

"Why are you guys wet?" Tea asked looking at the other six teens.

"Crocodiles," Joey said. "Ugh…"

Stephanie's hair was in disarray and all her make-up had completely washed off from her face. Even the red streaks she painted in had managed to come out making her look like, well, a mess.

Natalie's hair was starting to dry in a mess of curls. Tea snickered at her.

"I don't want to talk about it," she said. "I've had enough running from mummies and going through claustrophobic places for one day."

"At least you didn't have to go through booby traps and get locked in a cage for an hour and a half," Tristan said. "It was exhausting just trying to escape."

"Okay guys, I'm sure we'll get plenty of time to talk about this later," Yugi said. "We've got to place the seven items in their resting place. We're doing this for Yami, remember?"

Everyone nodded, even Natalie who had no clue who Yami was.

Penelope and the others entered the dark chamber and as soon as they did, the lights went on.

"Ah…Aphrodite, Pharaoh…we finally meet again…"

* * *

Well, I finally updated again! Hooray! The next chapter will have lots of action (and not the kind that I know you're all waiting for). Thank you for reading and see you next time!


	25. The Seven Millennium Items

A/N: Hooray! Chapter twenty five is finally here! Just a warning to those who don't like citrus-there is one in this chapter. Other than that, enjoy the story!

* * *

**Chapter Twenty-Five: The Seven Millennium Items**

Bakura stood before the group of teens, with a smug expression on his face.

"I had been waiting for you to come. I'm surprised you even survived the whole way…but you won't survive much longer."

A green fog began to seep through the cracks of the floor and evil spirits began floating throughout the room, while Bakura stood in the middle of the room laughing wickedly holding his millennium ring up in the air.

It was glowing and so was Yugi's millennium puzzle and the millennium rod that Seto had stashed in his trench coat.

A second figure came out holding the millennium scales, and they were also glowing.

"Katie?" Penelope was shocked that she was even here right now.

"No way! How the hell did she get all the way out here?"

"Because I told her to!" Bakura cackled. "And now I shall conquer all the items and get rid of you once and for all!"

Yugi changed and Yami appeared.

"Not so fast. All of this nonsense stops here."

"Really now? I'm guessing you would like to challenge me to duel?"

"Yugi…no…don't." Tea looked terrified. Bakura was dangerous and psychotic and it would not be good at all if he lost.

"Tea, I know you are afraid, but do not worry, everything will be okay. I will do my best to stop him."

In the middle of the room a dueling arena appeared and Yami and Bakura took their places and the duel began.

Suddenly Katie appeared behind Penelope. She could feel the hairs standing on the back of her neck when the evil presence was felt behind her.

"It's you or me," she said in such a soft tone that only Penelope could hear her. "Now…turn around and face me."

Penelope slowly turned around to face Katie, and she slapped her across the face. The stinging pain made her eyes water and a red mark was left on her face. Seto saw what happened and immediately ran over to her.

"Penelope!" He was almost over when he fell backwards and howled in pain. "What the hell is this?"

"No one gets to her until I'm through with her," she said.

"It's okay Seto, don't worry about me! Just make sure that Yugi is okay."

"No. I'm not leaving you alone with that girl!"

Katie's eyes began to give off an eerie green glow and Seto fell backwards again just by looking directly into his eyes.

"What the hell has Bakura done to you?"

"I've become more powerful because of him! You losers kicked me off the squad…so think of this as my personal revenge against you and everyone else."

"Look Katie, you don't have to do this. I was under his spell too once…he used me but I got out of it…and you can too. Let me help you."

"Fuck off!" She hit Penelope across the face again and signaled for Bakura to toss her their millennium items.

The eye and the ring joined the scales, the key and the necklace. Yami was struggling in the duel against Bakura. His monsters, especially Diabound kept coming back after being eliminated.

"Yugi! Give me your puzzle now and I will call off the duel!"

"What do you want with my puzzle?" Yami demanded.

"I'm going to change the world!"

"No! I won't let you do that!" The holographic monsters disappeared and turned into a game of "keep away" with Yugi's puzzle. He tossed it to Joey, while Bakura was hot on his trail as he chucked over to Stephanie who threw it to Tristan, back to Tea, to Yugi and Joey again.

Meanwhile Katie was chasing after the millennium rod that Seto was clutching tightly against him. Natalie and Penelope were trying to fight Katie off, but she was too strong. Then she grabbed Mokuba and hoisted him up in the air by the head.

"Give me the rod or else the kid is dead!"

Everyone stopped and Seto froze. He didn't know what to do. This millennium rod was strange how it had a special bond with him. For some reason he didn't want to part with it. Was the rod more valuable than his brother? Seto was unsure of what he would do. What if the bad guys got what they wanted?

"Kaiba! Don't give them the rod," Yami said fiercely. "We'll find another way to get Mokuba back."

"What makes you think I should listen to you?

"Because if you give them the rod then something horrible and evil will happen. The world as we know it will be over."

"That's such hocus pocus."

"Seto…it isn't, and you know it," Penelope whispered in his ear. "Please, for the sake of all of us…do the right thing."

Seto remained still and then started walking forward towards Katie, holding out the millennium rod before her as an offering.

"Kaiba! No!"

"Don't do it!"

"Please stop!"

"Yes! Give it to me and I will hand you back this little brat."

Seto was about to place it into her hands when the rod started to glow and Katie accidentally released Mokuba and fell over in agony.

Bakura's power over her was strong, but so was the rod's-meaning that Katie was being pulled between two powerful forces that could possibly kill her.

"What have you done! You fool! You're going to ruin everything!"

"You mean how you plan to summon Zorc the Dark One and kill us all?" Yami asked. "We knew of your plan all along and now it's time for us to stop you. I challenge you to a rematch."

"So do I," Penelope said. "After everything he's put me through, it's time he got a taste of his own medicine."

"Two against one? It seems rather unfair doesn't it?"

Katie managed to get out of Seto's spell and Bakura had her under her control once again.

"Listen girl, you will duel against those two fools with me. And we will win or you will be sent to the shadow realm. Understand?""Yes master."

The duel was brutal. Bakura summoned some of the darkest monsters Yami had ever seen, while he summoned all of his favorites in order to protect his life points. Penelope and Katie's monsters contrasted strongly against each other. One had dark monsters, while Katie's were all girly and pink-but deadly. Everyone was watching as both sides kept taking each other's monsters down one by one. So far it was evenly matched until Bakura began playing stronger monsters that even Yami couldn't compete with. Their only hope was Penelope's Tower of Babel which would trigger after the 5th trap card was laid down. Then Bakura and Katie would loose 3000 life points and the game would surely be over. That is, until Katie managed to eliminate it, foiling her plan.

"Just give up loser. You're not going to win."

"For the last time, shut the hell up!" Penelope had enough of Katie's mouth. During the entire duel she kept on egging her on and calling her rude names.

"Don't listen to her," Yami said. "Just make your next move." She drew another card and it was her dragon. Yami had all the other needed cards laid out.

"I'm going to play Brain control and take your monster and sacrifice him to summon mine." She managed to summon her dragon after sacrificing Bakura's monster and played a spell card to make the attack stronger.

"Crap!" was the last word Katie said before Penelope and Yami wiped out both their life points.

"You loose," Yami said. "So, have fun in the shadow realm."

Bakura's evil side and Katie's body and soul both disappeared into the shadow realm never to bother them again. Bakura fell forward and Tea caught him in her arms.

"Well, shall we place the items in there now?" Joey asked. "Or will something bad happen if we do?"

"According to Ishizu, this will prevent Zorc from returning again."

Seto shrugged and placed the millennium rod with the other items, and Yugi placed his puzzle in it's final resting place.

"So what does that mean for Yami?" Tea asked. "I'm will find out who I really am, and I can return to my time and be with my people again."

"Wow…I'm sure going to miss you," Yugi said. "You were the best friend I ever had, and because of you I have more."

"Enough of this mushy crap, can we just get on with it already?" Seto said getting annoyed. Natalie rolled her eyes at him.

"Gosh you're such a jerk. Just let them have their little moment. And what does my sister see in you anyways? I mean seriously, come on-"

"Natalie?"

"What?"

"Shut up," Penelope said keeping her quiet as everyone said goodbye to Yami (who found out his real name-Atem) forever.

* * *

_Three months later..._

Natalie and Penelope had just finished getting ready for Yugi's party and headed over to Tea's place. It was his birthday and even though it would be without Yami, they wanted to have as much fun as possible.

And of course, Chris had to tag along and sit in the backseat of Stephanie's car and talk about different types of marijuana, while Natalie kept telling him to shut up as Penelope and Stephanie sat in front constantly adjusting the dials on the radio.

When they arrived at the party, it was already in full swing. Joey and Tristan were scarping down slice after slice of pizza. Tea and Yugi were singing a duet on her "Glee Karaoke" game, Duke was flirting with Serenity while Bakura and Seto were talking at the kitchen table.

"Yay! You're here!" Joey said putting down his pizza and greeting them. "Come on in, the party is just starting."

"Where's Mokuba? He kept saying how he wanted to come."

"His school went on a class trip," Seto said approaching them. "It's good to see you," he said kissing her on the cheek.

She followed him over to the table while Natalie watched Tea and Yugi sing. Stephanie sat down with Joey and Tristan at the table and started gulping down pizza with them.

"So no alcohol this time?" Natalie asked Duke as she sat next to him on the couch.

"Well…wait. Why is your brother here?"

"He said he was bored and wanted to do something."

Chris was currently over at the table chatting with Bakura who appeared rather interested in what he had to say.

"I brought some bottles. They're in Tea's fridge. Her parents are gone for the weekend so we'll have plenty of time to dispose of the evidence. But I suppose right now we can just hang out and relax."

After Tea and Yugi finished singing "Don't Stop Believing," Tristan and Duke fought over who would sing with Serenity. She decided to sing "Defying Gravity" with Bakura instead. Stephanie made Joey sing "4 Minutes with Her" and after a lot of bickering, Penelope managed to get Seto to sing "I've Had the Time of My Life" with her.

Even Chris, who was clearly already sneaking sips out of the alcohol in the fridge sang with the others. The group then sang "Happy Birthday" to Yugi and had a cake that was shaped like a Kuriboh.

The party began to grow boring so soon everyone was drinking and playing card games or dancing to some music. While everyone was sitting in a circle taking shots, Seto and Penelope decided to leave. Natalie looked at her sister and winked at her as she left with her boyfriend.

* * *

Seto opened the door to his mansion and as soon as he shut it, they started kissing passionately. It wasn't an easy feat traveling to the stairs while Seto tugged on Penelope's shirt, trying to get her to take it off.

"No, not out here."

"Relax. No one's here but us."

"Really?"

"Yes. I made everyone take the day off and sent Mokuba away so we could be alone. Now come on, let's go upstairs."

She took his hand and followed him up to his room.

"I want you…right now." She tugged on his hair and kissed him again.

Seto took Penelope's hand and led her back down below and all the way down the hall to his bedroom.

When they entered the room, Seto closed the door behind him and got down to business with Penelope. He took her in his arms and kissed her gently, slowly leading her to his bed and carefully laying her down on the soft bedspread.

His hands made their way up underneath her shirt and carefully took it off her, taking in the beautiful body that was underneath. She was wearing the lacy black bra that she wanted to wear in Egypt for him. He smirked and was surprised when Penelope got on top of him and began unbuttoning his shirt, revealing his toned body. She reached for the belt buckle on his pants, but he stopped her.

"Not right now. I can't let you have all the fun, can I?"

He smirked at her and they kissed again, both their tongues now fighting for dominance as they continued to peel each other's clothes off. Penelope managed to get Seto's boxers off while he played with her breasts, taking each one in both of his hands and rubbing her nipples with her thumbs.

His mouth came in contact with her left breast and his tongue swirled around her nipple until it completely hardened. She hissed with satisfaction and moaned when he placed his mouth on her right breast and repeated his actions. She trembled as his hands ran down her sides, sliding off her skirt and her lacy black thong in one slow motion. He smirked at her, taking in how beautiful her body was. Her ivory skin was soft to the touch and her hair was fanned out over the foot of the bed.

Penelope's heart raced as she felt one hand make it's way back to her breast while the other one wandered lower and down to her wet core. He traced his fingers over her clitoris, and through the pink folds and inside of her. Seto managed to get a loud moan out of her as he started pumping his finger in and out of her, feeling how warm and wet she was inside for him. He added another finger, stretching her out even more. His lips came in contact with her mouth, and his other hand continued to rub her breast.

All of these sensations together was a lot for her to handle and she felt herself climax and came onto his fingers. Seto slid his fingers out of her and let her rest for a minute, watching her come out of her first orgasm of the evening. That was only the beginning of what he had in store for her. Seto could wait no longer. He was going to explode soon if he didn't make love to her now. He climbed on top of her and kissed her lips, kissed her neck and looked into her eyes.

"Do you still want this?" he asked her.

"You don't know how bad I've wanted this," she said placing her hand on his cheek. Seto placed her hands on her hips and slid them underneath her body and grabbed her ass. She spread her legs apart for him and he entered her, squeezing her ass as he felt his hard member push into her wet core. They started out slow at first, and then Seto began to move a bit faster, rocking his body against hers, turned on by the sensation of her thrusting back.

"Ahh!"

For the first time in a while, Penelope was actually enjoying the feeling of having sex. It was much better after all the built up sexual tension they had before today.

Seto moved faster, plunging in and out of Penelope and even letting out a few moans himself. The pleasure began to increase in intensity, and it became so intense that both of them began to reach their climax. Penelope threw her head back and her back arched as she let out a very loud moan.

Seto came into her and moaned as he felt her insides tighten around him like a vice. Finally it was over as the two teens collapsed onto the bed and Seto pulled out of her wet insides. He lay next to her and the two watched as they caught their breath after a very intense hour of making love for the first time.

For the first time, both of them were at a loss for words as they lay wrapped up in each other's arms.

Seto kissed her and the words that he had been dying to say finally came out.

"I love you," he said to her. She blushed as he kissed her lips.

"Seto…"

"I've been wanting to say that to you for a while now…I just…it wasn't the right time."

"I know. I'm glad you finally said it. I love you too. Even at the beginning when we were bickering all the time."

"I didn't mean to be like that," he said. "You just caught me off guard. I never met someone quite like you before."

"Same here."

"You're the first person I've let in since my parents died."

Penelope kind of knew about his past, but she would never understand the pain and loneliness he went through after he was dumped off at an orphanage with his brother.

"I'm glad you let me in. But I'm glad I'm also with someone like you. Before we met, I was not happy. Now I am."

Seto pulled her close to him, his bare body pressed up against hers.

"I'm glad were together too. Now, enough talk. I want to have you again."

They kissed softly for a few minutes until Penelope began stroking his member, getting him excited when he felt himself grow hard again. He moaned when she started moving her hand up and down on his shaft and when she put his lips on the tip of his member, he went crazy. He watched as his hardened cock disappeared into her mouth and watched as she moved up down on him, enjoying the fact that he was surrendering to her. Seto grabbed a fistful of Penelope's hair as he climaxed and came into her mouth.

She came back up and Seto grabbed her and spread her legs apart and started pleasuring her with his tongue.

"Oh Seto…please don't stop!"

His tongue moved back and forth over her weak spots over and over and made it all the way down to her wet core, licking her entrance over and over until she was close to her climax. Then he stopped.

"What the hell? I was enjoying that!"

"You've tempted and teased me long enough, so I'm returning the favor."

Seto entered her for the second time, this time being more pleasurable than last time. Penelope moaned when he started to thrust gently in and out of her over and over again, creating more heat between their bodies.

Seto went faster, the headboard banging against the wall and the room filled with the sounds of their love making. Finally they climaxed again and Seto collapsed on top of Penelope and rested his head on her chest.

This time after he pulled out, they both fell asleep.

* * *

Hope you enjoyed the chapter. The next one will be out soon. Please review and I'll see you next time! :)


	26. A Perfect Match

**Chapter Twenty-Six: A Perfect Match**

Seto opened his eyes and turned to see that Penelope was still asleep next to him. She looked peaceful considering what went on last night. He leaned over and kissed her forehead.

"Hey, time to get up," he whispered.

Her eyes fluttered opened and she smiled back at him.

"Hell no," she said pulling the covers over head and turning to face the other way. "Just five more minutes."

"Aw, too bad. I was going to take you out somewhere fun today." Penelope pulled the covers down and looked over at him.

"Now you've got my attention. What have you planned for us today?"

"Get dressed and I'll show you."

Seto got out of bed, not caring if Penelope saw him naked. She had already seen plenty of him last night. She watched as he got dressed and decided to do the same.

"Seto, can you bring my bag over here?"

"No. You can get it yourself."

She grumbled and grabbed the blanket and wrapped it around her and found her duffel bag. Just as she was turning around, Seto stepped on the trailing blanket, causing it to fall off of her. "Seto! What the hell?"

"You don't have to hide like that. I've already seen plenty of you last night."

"Don't be a pervert."

"I'm not. I'm just stating a fact."

Penelope simply ignored him and put on a pair of jeans, a black t-shirt and her favorite leather jacket.

"Oh yeah, I need to use the bathroom."

She got up and headed to the bathroom while Seto decided to tidy up in his room. He made his bed and hunted all over the room for his clothes. His pants were on one end of the room, while his shirt was on top of the dresser. Penelope's clothes were scattered around the room as well. Her skirt was hanging from a door knob, and her bra was on the floor. He decided to be nice and place all her clothes in a pile on his newly made.

He may have servants and maids to clean his house and do things for him, but even Seto Kaiba still cleaned his room.

When she came out her hair was down in its usual curls and she only wore a little bit of lip gloss.

"Wow…you look, different."

"Please don't say I look crazy," she said. Seto laughed.

"No…you don't. Now come on. Let's get out of here."

* * *

Seto drove his Ferrari again today, and they drove through the business district before parking near the theatre.

"Are we going to see a show?" she asked him as they were getting out of the car.

"I'm not telling you," he said taking her hand and leading her into the building. They got to the lobby and she raised an eyebrow at the titles.

Little Shop of Horrors, Sweeny Todd, and Rocky Horror Picture Show.

"Which one?"

"You're asking me?" Penelope had to take a minute to decide what she wanted to see. She had never seen any of these musicals before.

"Um…I'm not sure which one we should see?"

"Mokuba and I saw Little Shop of Horrors. He liked that one. But I wouldn't let him see the other two."

"Oh yeah, isn't Sweeny Todd the one with the barber that kills people?"

"Yes. And don't even get me started on the other one?"

"It's not scary, is it?"

"No, just…weird."

Penelope decided on Rocky Horror Picture Show, and Seto didn't seem to mind. The music was really good, and the actors were fantastic. It was good…if a person was into cannibalism, transvestites, bisexuality, and other things that often raised eyebrows.

* * *

"Wow…I don't think I am ever going to get that image of Frankenfurter out of my head," she said as they drove to find a place to eat.

"Same here," Seto said as they turned down another busy street. "But I did like the song he sang."

"Yeah…I liked it too. What was your favorite part?"

"I'm leaning between the scene with Janet and Rocky, and "Damn it, Janet." Those were my favorite songs."

"I liked the "Time Warp," Penelope said as Seto pulled into a parking space on the side of the street.

"So would you want to go with me next time and see another show?" he asked her.

"Yeah, maybe Mokuba could come too."

"As long as it's not PG-13. Rocky Horror was amazing but I would never let him go see it."

"Lion King should be coming out soon. I could take Chris with us too…you know, get him out of the house?"

"Sounds good. Are you getting hungry?"

"I sure am! Where are we going?"

Seto motioned towards the pizza place down the block. It wasn't just any pizza place, it was where Penelope worked. She laughed.

"What's so funny?"

"I work there."

"Good. Maybe you could suggest something good for us to order." The two teens walked down the street and entered the pizza shop. It wasn't too busy during this time of day, but Stephanie was currently wiping down some tables. She didn't look too tired from last night, but that was because she usually worked the afternoon shift.

"Steph!"

"Hey!" The two girls gave each other a hug and then started chatting while Seto sat down at a nearby table and waited.

"How was the party last night?" she asked.

"It was pretty good. I had to drive Joey home after. The poor kid drank way too much."

"Anything else happen?"Stephanie blushed and smiled.

"He kissed me. I helped him upstairs to his apartment and he kissed me before going inside. But I don't know if it would count since he was drunk…"

"Aw, so has he called you?"

"No. But he texted me earlier and said his head hurt." Penelope looked over to see Seto waiting, but he didn't seem to impatient. She signaled him to wait just a moment. He nodded and figured she would want to talk to her friend a little more.

"So you two left early…anything happen between you two?" Stephanie asked. Penelope blushed, looked at Seto and back at her friend and simply smiled.

"Did you guys…" Penelope said nothing and smiled. "You're not going to tell me?"

"I'll text you later," she said. "But yes…we did."

Stephanie smiled and hugged her friend.

"About time! I was pretty sure that you guys would rip each other's heads off soon. You two were arguing non-stop at lunch all week."

"I know. I'm going to go sit down. And could you bring out two waters for us?"

"Sure thing!" Stephanie said with a smile as she headed to the kitchen.

Penelope went over to Seto and sat down across from him.

"So I take it that her and Wheeler are going to be an item?"

Penelope was taken aback.

"You heard us?"

"I wasn't that far away. And you two do get pretty loud when you're talking."

"Sorry about that…you're not mad that I kind of told her, are you?"

"No. I know that she's your friend and I trust her. Just don't go giving away all of our juicy details," he said with a smirk.

"Seto! What kind of a girl do you think I am?" He smiled and kissed her on the cheek.

"You're my girl, and you know I'm just teasing."

Stephanie came back out with their drinks and they decided to order a plain pizza while watching the card game network channel.

"So are you still bummed that you aren't going to nationals?" he asked her.

"Kind of, but the squad needs me. There's always next year."

"I'll be cheering you on no matter what you're doing, I hope you know that." She smiled.

"I'm glad I found you."

"No, I'm pretty sure I found you."

"So it wasn't fate that brought us together?"

"You know I don't believe in that crap. We were lucky enough to meet each other and realize that we're perfect together."

"Like I said, I'm lucky I found you," she said kissing him. He kissed her back knowing that he had finally found someone to love.

They were the perfect match…

**THE END**

* * *

Well, that's it, please review and thank you for sticking by me this past year! I know updates were slow...but I finally finished!

And if you're looking for more stories, be sure to check out Paro-Glee (A parody of Glee) and my new story: Something About Her-soon to be released! :) Thank you!


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